come down like a ton of bricks

1. To fall or collapse violently and often unexpectedly. We must have been missing some screws when we built the bookshelf because it just came down like a ton of bricks! You better make sure that painting is up there securely, or it'll come down like a ton of bricks when you least expect it. A: "Whoa, is that lady all right? She really came down like a ton of bricks." B: "I bet she slipped on the ice over there."

2. slang To punish someone swiftly and harshly. When I was caught cheating on a test, the principal came down like a ton of bricks on me. I know I didn't do well on the exam, but I didn't expect my dad to come down like a ton of bricks—he grounded me for a month! Mom will come down like a ton of bricks if you come home past curfew again.

See also: brick, come, down, like, of, ton

come down like a ton of bricks

exert crushing weight, force, or authority against someone. informal

See also: brick, come, down, like, of, ton

like a ton of bricks, (come down)

Very heavily, unsubtly. This expression originated in early nineteenth-century America as “a thousand of brick,” presumably because bricks in such quantity were more commonly counted than weighed. “If folks is sassy, we walk right into ’em like a thousand o’ brick,” wrote Caroline Kirkland (Forest Life, 1842). Sometime in the early twentieth century it was replaced by ton, which has survived. Thus, to come down on like a ton of bricks means to reprimand or punish severely. This colloquialism dates from the first half of the 1900s. The novelist Graham Greene used it in Brighton Rock (1938): “If there’s any fighting I shall come down like a ton of bricks on both of you.”