brain

From Middle English brayn, brain, from Old English bræġen (“brain”), from Proto-Germanic *bragną (“brain”), from Proto-Indo-European *mregʰnom (“skull, brain”), from Proto-Indo-European *mregʰ- (“marrow, sinciput”) + *men- (“mind, to think”). 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 (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: brane
• Rhymes: -eɪn

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 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.

2. (informal) An intelligent person.

   He was a total brain.

   1. (plural only) A person who provides the intelligence required for something.

      He is the brains behind the scheme.

3. (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.

   He has a lot of brains.

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

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

4. 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.

5. (slang, vulgar) oral sex
   • 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

• harns
• See also Thesaurus:brain
• See also Thesaurus:genius

• (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, figuratively) To destroy; to put an end to.
   • Shakespeare

     There thou mayst brain him.

   • Shakespeare

     It was the swift celerity of the death […] That brained my purpose.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To conceive in the mind; to understand.
   • Shakespeare

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

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:brain.

• Brian, Rabin, abrin, bairn, brian

brain m

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

brain

1. Alternative form of brayn

• broin

• IPA^(key): /branʲ/

brain m

1. vocative singular of bran
2. genitive singular of bran
3. nominative plural of bran

• IPA^(key): /brai̯n/

brain m pl

1. plural of brân