brain

Picture dictionary
skull brain eye lip nose mouth chin jaw ear temple neck
Click on labels in the image.

From Middle English brayn, brain, from Old English bræġn (“brain”), from Proto-West Germanic *bragn, from Proto-Germanic *bragną (“brain”), from Proto-Indo-European *mregʰnom (“skull, brain”), from Proto-Indo-European *mregʰ- (“marrow, sinciput”) + *-mn̥ (“nominal suffix”).

Cognate with Scots braine, brane (“brain”), North Frisian brayen, brein (“brain”), Saterland Frisian Brainge (“brain”), West Frisian brein (“brain”), Dutch brein (“brain”), Low German Brägen, Bregen (“brain”) (whence German Bregen (“animal brain”)), Ancient Greek βρεχμός (brekhmós, “front part of the skull, top of the head”).

• enPR: brān, IPA^(key): /bɹeɪn/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: brane
• Rhymes: -eɪn

brain (countable and uncountable, plural brains)

2. 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.

   Synonyms: encephalon, harns; see also Thesaurus:brain

   • 1587, Philip of Mornay [i.e., Philippe de Mornay], “That there is but Onely One God”, in Philip Sidney, Arthur Golding, transl., A Woorke Concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion, , London: [John Charlewood and] George Robinson for Thomas Cadman, , →OCLC, page 18:

     The Ueynes are ſpred foorth throughout the whole bodie, howbeit from one welhead, that is to ſay from the Liuer: ſo be the Sinews, howbeit from the Brayne; So likewiſe are the Heartſtrings, howbeit from the Heart.

   • 2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 189, number 6, page 34:

     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.

   1. A part of the brain, especially associated with particular mental functions, abilities, etc.
      • 1892, Benjamin Ward Richardson, The Asclepiad, London, page 357:

        The left brain, or that which supplies and animates the right side of the body, is the most active brain, as a general rule.

      • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 113:

        What is expressed in the lotus, the plumed serpent, or the staff of Osiris is the yogi's knowledge of the three brains of man. The first brain is the reptilian brain of the spinal cord, the brain of instinctive reflexes, the brain of the subconscious.

3. (informal) An intelligent person.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:genius

   She was a total brain.

   • 2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Nexus:

     Peebee: The brains and I are comparing Remnant notes and filling in the blanks.

   1. (plural only) 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.

   She has a lot of brains.

   1. (in the singular) An intellectual or mental capacity.

      Gerald always acts like he doesn't have a brain.

5. 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.

6. (slang, vulgar, uncountable) Oral sex.
   • 2007, “Good Life”, in Graduation, performed by Kanye West ft. T-Pain:

     Have you ever popped champagne on a plane, while gettin' some brain?

   • 2012, Mack Maine featuring Turk and Mystikal, I'm On It:

     You said I got brain from your dame in the range / In the passing lane / But you really ain't got no proof

   • 2018, “Squidrific”, performed by SahBabii:

     She giving brain / She eat the dick up like some M&Ms

7. (informal) Mind.

   I have too much on my brain today.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto XIV, page 22:

     And I should tell him all my pain, / ⁠And how my life had droop’d of late, / ⁠And he should sorrow o’er my state / And marvel what possess’d my brain; […]

8. A loose compartment of a backpack that straps on over the top opening.

• brayne (obsolete)

• (brain lobes) brain lobe; frontal lobe, occipital lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe ^{(Category: en:Brain)}

brain (third-person singular simple present brains, present participle braining, simple past and past participle brained)

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.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 12:

     There thou maiſt braine him,

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 82, column 2:

     It was the ſwift celeritie of his death / […] That brain'd my purpoſe:

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 21, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     He was going on with some wild reminiscences about his tomahawk-pipe, which, it seemed, had in its two uses both brained his foes and soothed his soul, when we were directly attracted to the sleeping rigger.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To conceive in the mind; to understand.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     'Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen / Tongue, and brain not.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:brain.

• Category:brain on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• brain on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• human brain on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• brain on Wikiquote.Wikiquote

• Barin, Brian, Rabin, abrin, bairn, brian

brain m

1. inflection of bran:
   1. vocative/genitive singular
   2. nominative/dative plural

brain

1. Alternative form of brayn

• broin

• IPA^(key): /branʲ/

brain m

1. inflection of bran:
   1. vocative/genitive singular
   2. nominative plural

• IPA^(key): /brai̯n/
• Rhymes: -ai̯n
• Homophone: braen (“rotten”) (South Wales)

brain m pl

1. plural of brân (“crow”)

brain m or f (plural breiniau or breinau or breinioedd or breinion)

1. Alternative form of braint (“honour”)

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “brain”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies