brain

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

brain, n. [OE. brain, brein, AS. bragen, brægen; akin to LG. brägen, bregen, D. brein, and perh. to Gr. bre`gma, brechmo`s, the upper part of head, if

•  The whitish mass of soft matter (the center of the nervous system, and the seat of consciousness and volition) which is inclosed in the cartilaginous or bony cranium of vertebrate animals. It is simply the anterior termination of the spinal cord, and is developed from three embryonic vesicles, whose cavities are connected with the central canal of the cord; the cavities of the vesicles become the central cavities, or ventricles, and the walls thicken unequally and become the three segments, the fore-, mid-, and hind-brain.  [1913 Webster]

  " In the brain of man the cerebral lobes, or largest part of the forebrain, are enormously developed so as to overhang the cerebellum, the great lobe of the hindbrain, and completely cover the lobes of the midbrain. The surface of the cerebrum is divided into irregular ridges, or convolutions, separated by grooves (the so-called fissures and sulci), and the two hemispheres are connected at the bottom of the longitudinal fissure by a great transverse band of nervous matter, the corpus callosum, while the two halves of the cerebellum are connected on the under side of the brain by the bridge, or pons Varolii."  [1913 Webster]
•  The anterior or cephalic ganglion in insects and other invertebrates.  [1913 Webster]
•  The organ or seat of intellect; hence, the understanding; as, use your brains.  Sir W. Scott.  [1913 Webster]

  " In this sense, often used in the plural."  [1913 Webster]
•  The affections; fancy; imagination.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  a very intelligent person.  [PJC]
•  the controlling electronic mechanism for a robot, guided missile, computer, or other device exhibiting some degree of self-regulation.  [PJC]

To have on the brain, to have constantly in one's thoughts, as a sort of monomania. [Low] -- no-brainer a decision requiring little or no thought; an obvious choice.

Brain box or Brain case, the bony or cartilaginous case inclosing the brain. -- Brain coral, Brain stone coral (Zoöl), a massive reef-building coral having the surface covered by ridges separated by furrows so as to resemble somewhat the surface of the brain, esp. such corals of the genera Mæandrina and Diploria. -- Brain fag (Med.), brain weariness. See Cerebropathy. -- Brain fever (Med.), fever in which the brain is specially affected; any acute cerebral affection attended by fever. -- Brain sand, calcareous matter found in the pineal gland.

brain, v. t. 

•  To dash out the brains of; to kill by beating out the brains.  [1913 Webster]

  "There thou mayst brain him."  [1913 Webster]

  "It was the swift celerity of the death . . .
  That brained my purpose."  [1913 Webster]
•  To conceive; to understand.  [1913 Webster]

  "'T is still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen
  Tongue, and brain not."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

brain, n. & v.
--n.
1 an organ of soft nervous tissue contained in the skull of vertebrates, functioning as the coordinating centre of sensation, and of intellectual and nervous activity.
2 (in pl.) the substance of the brain, esp. as food.
3 a a person's intellectual capacity (has a poor brain). b (often in pl.) intelligence; high intellectual capacity (has a brain; has brains).
4 (in pl.; prec. by the) colloq. a the cleverest person in a group. b a person who originates a complex plan or idea (the brains behind the robbery).
5 an electronic device with functions comparable to those of a brain.
--v.tr.
1 dash out the brains of.
2 strike hard on the head.

Idiom

brain-dead suffering from brain death. brain death irreversible brain damage causing the end of independent respiration, regarded as indicative of death. brain drain colloq. the loss of skilled personnel by emigration. brain fever inflammation of the brain. brain-pan colloq. the skull. brain stem the central trunk of the brain, upon which the cerebrum and cerebellum are set, and which continues downwards to form the spinal cord. brains (US brain) trust a group of experts who give impromptu answers to questions, usu. publicly. brain-teaser (or -twister) colloq. a puzzle or problem. brain trust US a group of expert advisers. on the brain colloq. obsessively in one's thoughts.

Etymology

OE br{aelig}gen f. WG

DEVIL DICTIONARY

brain

n. An apparatus with which we think what we think. That which distinguishes the man who is content to _be_ something from the man who wishes to _do_ something. A man of great wealth, or one who has been pitchforked into high station, has commonly such a headful of brain that his neighbors cannot keep their hats on. In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, brain is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.

THESAURUS

brain

Vernunft, abdomen, acumen, afferent neuron, anus, appendix, autonomic nervous system, axon, bean, blind gut, blow to pieces, blow up, bowels, brains, bring down, burn to death, capacity, cecum, central nervous system, cerebral cortex, cognition, colon, conception, consciousness, craniosacral nervous system, cut down, cut to pieces, deal a deathblow, dendrite, discernment, discourse of reason, discursive reason, disintegrate, drop, duodenum, effector organ, efferent neuron, encephalon, endocardium, entrails, esprit, fell, foregut, frag, ganglion, genius, giblets, give the quietus, gizzard, gray matter, gun down, guts, head, headpiece, heart, hindgut, imagination, incinerate, innards, inner mechanism, insides, intellect, intellection, intellectual, intellectual faculty, intelligence, internals, internuncial neuron, intestine, inwards, jejunum, jugulate, kidney, kishkes, knowledge, lapidate, large intestine, lay low, leader, liver, liver and lights, lung, mastermind, medullary sheath, mens, mental capacity, mentality, midgut, mind, mother wit, nerve, nerve trunk, nervous system, neuron, noddle, noggin, noodle, nous, organ of thought, pate, perception, perceptiveness, percipience, perineum, peripheral nervous system, perspicacity, pistol, planner, plexus, poleax, power of reason, psyche, pump, pylorus, ratio, rationality, reason, reasoning, reasoning faculty, rectum, riddle, sagacity, sconce, seat of thought, sensation, sense, sensorium, sensory, sensory area, sensory cell, shoot, shoot down, shoot to death, shotgun, silence, small intestine, smarts, solar plexus, spinal cord, spleen, stab to death, stomach, stone, stone to death, strike dead, synapse, thoracolumbar nervous system, thought, ticker, tripes, understanding, vaporize, vermiform appendix, viscera, vitals, white matter, wisdom, wise man, wit, works

ROGET THESAURUS

brain

Killing

VB kill, put to death, slay, shed blood, murder, assassinate, butcher, slaughter, victimize, immolate, massacre, take away life, deprive of life, make away with, put an end to, despatch, dispatch, burke, settle, do for, strangle, garrote, hang, throttle, choke, stifle, suffocate, stop the breath, smother, asphyxiate, drown, saber, cut down, cut to pieces, cut the throat, jugulate, stab, run through the body, bayonet, eviscerate, put to the sword, put to the edge of the sword, shoot dead, blow one's brains out, brain, knock on the head, stone, lapidate, give a deathblow, deal a deathblow, give a quietus, give a coupe de grace, behead, bowstring, electrocute, gas, hunt, shoot, cut off, nip in the bud, launch into eternity, send to one's last account, sign one's death warrant, strike the death knell of, give no quarter, pour out blood like water, decimate, run amuck, wade knee deep in blood, imbrue one's hands in blood, die a violent death, welter in one's blood, dash out one's brains, blow out one's brains, commit suicide, kill oneself, make away with oneself, put an end to oneself, put an end to it all.

Intellect

N intellect, mind, understanding, reason, thinking principle, rationality, cogitative faculties, cognitive faculties, discursive faculties, reasoning faculties, intellectual faculties, faculties, senses, consciousness, observation, percipience, intelligence, intellection, intuition, association of ideas, instinct, conception, judgment, wits, parts, capacity, intellectuality, genius, brains, cognitive powers, intellectual powers, wit, ability, wisdom, Vernunft, Verstand, soul, spirit, ghost, inner man, heart, breast, bosom, penetralia mentis, divina particula aurae, heart's core, the Absolute, psyche, subliminal consciousness, supreme principle, brain, organ of thought, seat of thought, sensorium, sensory, head, headpiece, pate, noddle, noggin, skull, scull, pericranium, cerebrum, cranium, brainpan, sconce, upper story, central processing unit, CPU, arithmetic and logical unit, ALU, metaphysics, psychics, psychology, ideology, mental philosophy, moral philosophy, philosophy of the mind, pneumatology, phrenology, craniology, cranioscopy, ideality, idealism, transcendentalism, spiritualism, immateriality, universal concept, universal conception, metaphysician, psychologist, intellectual, mental, rational, subjective, metaphysical, nooscopic, spiritual, ghostly, psychical, psychological, cerebral, animastic, brainy, hyperphysical, superphysical, subconscious, subliminal, immaterial, endowed with reason, in petto, ens rationis, frons est animi janua, locos y ninos dicen la verdad, mens sola loco non exulat, my mind is my kingdom, stern men with empires in their brains, the mind, the music breathing from her face, thou living ray of intellectual Fire.

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