drop a brick

present singular third person drops a brick · participle present dropping a brick · participle past dropped a brick · past dropped a brick

1. UKidiomaticTo commit a faux pas, especially in speech, such as by tactlessly speaking of a subject that should not be mentioned.

   I remember dropping a brick when I first met her. As she at once started calling me 'Harry' in the way Americans are apt to do, the surname becoming immediately superfluous. I ventured to ask her what her Christian name was. ‘I'm not a Christian, Harry.’

   1998, Harry Brewster, A Cosmopolite's Journey: Episodes from a Life, page 216

   1 more example

   It was on one of those Tuesdays that I dropped a brick, the memory of which still haunts me after more than forty years. A very loquacious lady, whom I had never seen before, appeared to be talking through her nose. “Don't you think,” I said to one of my neighbours, by way of starting conversation, “that lady would be well advised to sound her trumpet less often?” “You bet I do! I've not been able to get used to it these thirty years.” And as I stared at him, horror-struck: “Yes. I'm her husband.”

   1978, Ambroise Vollard, translated by Violet M. MacDonald, Recollections of a Picture Dealer, Dover Publications, published 2003, page 28

2. USalternativeidiomaticAlternative form of drop a bombshell.
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see drop, brick.

   The clumsy builder dropped a brick on his toe.