• Brain

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /bɹeɪn/
    • Homophones: brane
    • Rhymes: -eɪn

    Origin

    From Middle English brain, from Old English bræġen ("brain"), from Proto-Germanic *bragną ("brain"), from Proto-Indo-European *mreghmno-, *mreghmo- ("skull, brain"), from Proto-Indo-European *mreK- ("marrow, sinciput"). Cognate with Scots braine, brane ("brain"), North Frisian brayen, brein ("brain"), West Frisian brein ("brain"), Dutch brein ("brain"), Low German Brägen ("brain"), Bregen Ancient Greek βρεχμός (brechmos, "front part of the skull, top of the head").

    Noun

    brain

    (plural brains)
    1. The control center of the central nervous system of an animal located in the skull which is responsible for perception, cognition, attention, memory, emotion, and action.
      • 2013-07-19, Ian Sample, Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains, Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.
    2. (informal) An intelligent person.
      He was a total brain.
    3. (UK, plurale tantum) A person who provides the intelligence required for something.
      He is the brains behind the scheme.
    4. (in the plural) Intellect.
      • 2008 Quaker Action (magazine) Rights trampled in rush to deport immigrant workers, Fall 2008, Vol. 89, No. 3, p. 8:"We provided a lot of brains and a lot of heart to the response when it was needed," says Sandra Sanchez, director of AFSC's Immigrants' Voice Program in Des Moines.
    5. He has a lot of brains.
    6. By analogy with a human brain, the part of a machine or computer that performs calculations.
      The computer's brain is capable of millions of calculations a second.

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    terms derived from brain (noun)

    Full definition of brain

    Verb

    1. (transitive) To dash out the brains of; to kill by smashing the skull.
    2. (transitive, slang) To strike (someone) on the head.
    3. (transitive, figurative) To destroy; to put an end to.
      • ShakespeareThere thou mayst brain him.
      • ShakespeareIt was the swift celerity of the death ... That brained my purpose.
    4. (transitive) To conceive in the mind; to understand.
      • Shakespeare'Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen
        Tongue, and brain not.

    Anagrams

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