goldbrick /ˈɡoʊldbrɪk/
vt. 欺诈；偷懒
n. 偷懒的人；假金砖；赝品
The gold brick swindle is an old one but it crops up constantly, states an 1881 National Police Gazette article referring to the con artist's practice of passing off bricks made of base metal as gold.
By the time World War I was under way, the word goldbrick was associated with another sort of trickery. The sense of the word meaning "shirker" originated in the slang of the United States Army, where it referred to a soldier who feigned illness or injury in order to get out of work or service. That sense has since expanded in usage to refer to any person who avoids or tries to get out of his or her assignment.
goldbrick来自于19世纪中期的美国淘金热。1848年加利福尼亚州发现黄金，想发财的人纷纷涌向西海岸淘金，他们采出金子以后，往往把金子铸成砖，这样方便运输，goldbrick一词就这么出来啦。
不过，很多东西在刚开始时都是真的（正如孟庭苇那首《真的还是假的》所唱，“我听说开始总是真的，后来会慢慢变成假的” ）。goldbrick这块真金砖，遇上了骗子就被改变了一切。骗子用铅或铁铸成块，然后在表面镀上一层金，以假乱真。假金砖让不少人上当受骗，不久，goldbrick就开始用来指“假金砖”、 “冒牌货”、“虚有其表的东西”。
到了第一次世界大战，goldbrick竟然又和为了逃避工作、义务而去装病或装受伤的一些士兵联系到了一起，被引申为“逃避工作的人”、“偷懒的人”。然后，就一直沿用到了现在。
例句：
As the group leader, one must not goldbrick.
身为组长，不能偷懒。
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