like a ton of bricks

prepositional phrase

Very strongly; very heavily; often unexpectedly.

“If you're late she'll come down on you like a ton of bricks.”

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Meanings

prepositional phrase
  1. colloquialsimileVery strongly; very heavily; often unexpectedly.

    If you're late she'll come down on you like a ton of bricks.

    3 more examples

    The Defendant then came down on me like a ton of bricks, as my eye will prove.

    1884 February 2, Punch, page 52

    Senator Breaux: Did you see this coming on gradually, or did it hit you all of a sudden like a ton of bricks?

    2000, United States Senate, The Boomers are Coming: The Challenge of Family Caregiving : Hearing Before the Special Committee on Aging, United States Senate, One Hundred Sixth Congress, First Session, Monroe, LA, October 11, 1999, →ISBN, page 34

    “I still feel so bad about that. I fell for you like a ton of bricks when I first saw you onstage with the band.[…]"

    2009 October 29, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Mr Stink, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN
Cite this entry
APA

like a ton of bricks. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/like%20a%20ton%20of%20bricks

MLA

“like a ton of bricks.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/like%20a%20ton%20of%20bricks. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “like a ton of bricks,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/like%20a%20ton%20of%20bricks.

Source: like a ton of bricks on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.