Meaning

noun a soldier who performs his duties without proper care or effort

noun an idle worthless person

noun a brick-shaped block that looks like gold but is not

originFrom gold + brick, originally (1850s) an actual gold ingot or brick, later a swindle that consisted of selling a putative gold brick, which was only coated in gold. The swindle is attested from 1879, the sense “to swindle” is attested 1902, and the sense “to shirk” is attested 1914, popularized as World War I armed forces slang. In early 1900s, used to refer to an unattractive young woman – not…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0