unbrick

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ brick.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

unbrick (third-person singular simple present unbricks, present participle unbricking, simple past and past participle unbricked)

1. (transitive) To reopen something bricked up.
   • 1963, Muriel Spark, chapter 8, in The Girls of Slender Means, London: Macmillan:

     The skylight, although it had been bricked up by someone’s hysterical order, at that time in the past when a man had penetrated the attic-floor of the club to visit a girl, was not beyond being unbricked by the firemen. It was all a question of time.

   • 2009, John Saul, In the Dark of the Night, page 135:

     "My folks are off playing golf, and Marci's going to that Summer Fun thing at the school. Which means we'll have plenty of time to unbrick that door and see what's behind it."

2. (transitive, slang, computing) To repair a device that was bricked (rendered inoperative).
   • 2007, Paul Asadoorian, Larry Pesce, Linksys WRT54G: ultimate hacking, page 327:

     Using JTAG to Unbrick Your Router