like a ton of bricks

like a ton of bricks

With a sudden and significant impact. Mom will come down on you like a ton of bricks if you come home past curfew again. News that my daughter had cheated on her test hit me like a ton of bricks.
See also: brick, like, of, ton
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

*like a ton of bricks

Inf. like a great weight or burden. (*Typically: fall ~; hit ~; hit someone ~.) Suddenly, the truth hit me like a ton of bricks. The sudden tax increase hit like a ton of bricks. Everyone became angry.
See also: brick, like, of, ton
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

like a ton of bricks

Very heavily, without subtlety. For example, If he doesn't like your work, he'll come down on you like a ton of bricks. This expression, often coupled with come down on (def. 1), replaced the earlier thousand of brick or hundred of brick. The allusion in all these is to the considerable weight of such a load. [Early 1900s]
See also: brick, like, of, ton
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

like a ton of bricks

Like a ton of bricks is used to show that something happens very suddenly and forcefully. By mid-July, the dangers had hit Bobby like a ton of bricks. She was twenty when Orpen met her and he fell for her like a ton of bricks. Note: The metric measurement tonne is occasionally used instead of ton. Then reality hit her like a tonne of bricks.
See also: brick, like, of, ton
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

like a ton of bricks

mod. like something very ponderous and heavy. Hitting the back end of that truck was like hitting a ton of bricks.
See also: brick, like, of, ton
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • be down on (one) like a ton of bricks
  • be/come down on somebody like a ton of bricks
  • come down on (one) like a ton of bricks
  • come down on someone like a ton of bricks
  • hit (one) like a ton of bricks
  • Do we have to go through all that again?
  • hit the bricks
  • pavement
  • few
  • a/one side of the story
References in periodicals archive
Michael Karl Dawes wrote on Twitter: "The police should come down on whoever is responsibility for this like a ton of bricks."
CCTV shows a pedestrian's narrow escape from being crushed by a cascade of falling bricks in Stoke Newington; Strong winds caused an entire roof to collapse just after he strolled past
Because we will come down on them like a ton of bricks."Hollande, meanwhile, said that he did not control French corporations but had made clear sanctions on Iran would not be dismantled until a final deal on Iran's nuclear program had been reached."Sanctions will only be lifted if and when there is definite agreement," Hollande said."During this period of the interim agreement, they remain in force."The 116-strong French delegation, with representatives from major companies like Total, Lafarge and Peugeot, was the largest of its kind from Europe since a landmark nuclear deal reached with the major powers in November gave Iran limited relief from crippling US and EU sanctions.
Obama: firms violate Iran sanctions at own 'peril'
And last week Lib Dem John Hemming tabled an EDM to come down like a ton of bricks on the BBC for saying "come down like a tonne of bricks".
Cracking the whip
Anyway, Messers Hemming and Nattrass, who unusually find themselves in agreement, can rest assured that the Birmingham Mail will always come down on them like a ton of bricks if they put a foot wrong.
That's a weight off my mind
Freeze can bit your bird like a ton of bricks in the mountains of Afghanistan or in the Iraqi desert at night.
Cover 'em up
After the game Epstein explained his actions to the press as follows: "It hit us like a ton of bricks. Of course, Ken and I are Jewish, but I'd feel the same way if it was any other team.
A small, yet momentous gesture
"I just went out and kinda forced it on [our custodians], which is not a good way to handle it." Indeed, that pushback hit him, as he phrases it, like a ton of bricks, since many of the employees didn't want to change something they didn't perceive as broken.
The kindest cuts? As school districts live with the realities of maintenance cuts, more solutions--and mistakes--are finding their way into the spotlight