| 释义 |
▪ I. brain, n.|breɪn|
Forms: 1 bræᵹen (breᵹn), bræᵹn, braᵹen, 3 braȝen, breine, 3–6 brayn(e, 4– 7 braine, 5–6 brane, 3– brain.
[OE. bræᵹ(e)n = LG. brägen, Du. and Fris. brein (not found in HG., Scand., or Goth.):—OTeut. type *bragno(m), perh. related to Gr. βρεχµός forehead.]
1. a. The convoluted mass of nervous substance contained in the skull of man and other vertebrates. By some earlier scientific writers restricted to the anterior portion (in Latin cerebrum) as opposed to the posterior portion (brainlet, cerebellum); but this distinction is now expressed by the Lat. words, which have been adopted in scientific use, and brain in technical as well as in popular language includes the entire organ; it is also applied by extension to the analogous but less developed organs of invertebrate animals.
In 16th c. it became usual to employ the pl. instead of the sing. when mere cerebral substance, and not a definite organic structure, was meant; this usage still continues: we say ‘a dish of brains’, ‘a disease of the brain’.
c1000Ags. Ps. vii. 16 On his bræᵹn astiᵹe his unriht. c1000Sax. Leechd. I. 358 Bares bræᵹen ᵹesoden..ealle sar hyt ᵹeliðeᵹaþ. a1100Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker Voc. 305 Cerebrum, braᵹen. c1205Lay. 1468 His blod and his brain [c 1275 braȝen] ba weoren to-dascte. 1297R. Glouc. 446 Kyng Henry brayn, and gottes, and eyen ybured were At Reynys in Normandye. 1393Gower Conf. II. 176 The wit and reson..Is in the celles of the brain. c1460Towneley Myst. 209 (Mätz.) Lo here a crowne of thorne, to perche his brane within. 1486Bk. St. Albans B iiij, Rewarde youre hawke with the Brayne and the necke. 1578Banister Hist. Man v. 78 The quadruplication of Dura mater..lyeth betwene the brayne and Cerebellum. 1598Shakes. Merry W. iii. v. 7 Ile haue my braines tane out and butter'd. 1653Walton Angler 179 Pearch..have in their brain a stone. 1772Priestley Inst. Relig. (1782) II. 389 The power of thinking..depends..upon the brain. 1824–8Landor Imag. Conv. (1846) 460 The power of thinking is no more in the brain than in the hair. 1880Huxley Cray-Fish iii. 105 A transversely elongated mass of ganglionic substance termed the Brain or cerebral ganglion.
b. Phrases. to dash, knock out a person's brains: i.e. by a blow. to blow out (any) one's brains: to shoot oneself or another in the head.
1607Shakes. Timon i. i. 193 To knocke out an honest Athenians braines. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. vi, Establish himself in Bedlam; begin writing Satanic Poetry; or blow out his brains. 1859Autobiog. Beggar-boy 95 [He] demanded his money, or he would blow out his brains. 1864Tennyson Boadicea 68 Dash the brains of the little one out.
†2. transf. Marrow; the pith or heart of the growth at the top of a date-palm. Obs.
1552Huloet, Brayne, or marrow of the legge, musculus. 1601Holland Pliny I. 386 These [date-trees] haue in the very head and top, a certain pleasant..marow, which they terme, The braine.
3. a. Considered as the centre of sensation, the organ of thought, memory, or imagination. (From 16th c. onwards the pl. has been preferred in familiar use and idiomatic phrases, but not in dignified language, exc. when more than one brain is referred to.)
c1230Hali Meid. 35 Of breines turnunge þin heaued [schule] ake. c1384Chaucer H. Fame 24 To grete feblenesse of her brayne. 1536Remed. Sedition p. ii b, Full of bones, but voyde of brayne. 1604James I Counterbl. 103 The Nose being the proper Organ and conuoy of the sense of smelling to the braines. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 674 Ye sacred muses, with whose Beauty fir'd My Soul is ravish'd, and my Brain inspir'd. 1845Disraeli Sybil (1863) 275 ‘You have a clear brain and a bold spirit; you have no scruples..You ought to succeed.’ 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. II. 512 Was that plan the conception of any one brain?
fig.1844Kinglake Eothen ii. (1878) 17 The accomplished Mysseri..was in fact the brain of our corps. 1861M. Arnold Pop. Educ. France Pref. 23 Frenchmen proclaim..Paris to be the brain of Europe.
b. Phrases. to break (obs.), beat, busy, cudgel, drag, puzzle one's brains: to exert oneself in thought or contrivance. to crack one's brain(s): to render oneself insane. to have anything (e.g. music, bicycling, any object of admiration or antipathy) on the brain: to be crazy on the subject of; also, to have got (something) on the brain. to turn one's brain: to render giddy, hence fig. to bewilder, to render vain or imprudent. † a dry brain (Shakes.): a dull or barren brain void of thinking power. † a hot brain: an inventive fancy. † boiled brains: hot-headed fellows.
1530Palsgr. 350 We breake our braynes for nought. 1577Stanyhurst Descr. Irel. in Holinshed VI. 32 To beat his braines in the curious insearching of deep mysteries. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. vii. 38. 1602 ― Ham. v. i. 63 Cudgell thy braines no more about it. 1611― Wint. T. iii. iii. 64; iv. iv. 701. 1742 Young Nt. Th. viii. 513 An eminence, tho' fansy'd, turns the brain. 1847Tennyson Princ. iv. 136 While I dragg'd my brains for such a song. 1848Kingsley Saint's Trag. ii. iii, I puzzled my brains about choosing my line. 1862Mrs. Gaskell Lett. (1966) 698 Our poor people would get work, and..we should not be killed with ‘Poor on the Brain’, as I expect we shall before the winter is over. 1869Congress. Globe Jan. 182/2 The Gazette seems to have the franking privilege ‘on the brain’. 1884Cromer Let. 11 Mar. in Marq. of Zetland Lord Cromer (1932) ix. 100, I have got it on the brain that much writing is not a good thing for the moment. 1900C. M. Yonge Modern Broods i. 12 Child, I believe you have bicycles on the brain. 1911A. Bennett Hilda Lessways ii. iv. 173 Tom..had for the moment got Beethoven on the brain. 1957M. Spark Comforters v. 108 Caroline had it very much on the brain that her phantom should be outwitted in this one particular.
c. An electronic device that performs complicated operations comparable to those of the human brain; spec. an electronic computer. Cf. electronic brain.
1934Scoops 10 Feb. 15/2 An attempt to construct a mechanical man who can think..is to be made by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The ‘Brain’ of the new robot is an accomplished fact. 1945War Illustr. 7 Dec. 492/1 The ‘brain’ of the shell is a fuse, a tiny radio set—transmitter, receiver and aerial all combined—in the nose of the shell. 1951R. Knox Stimuli iii. xxi. 129 Recently the Press recorded the invention of a calculating machine... They called it a ‘brain’. 1952Economist 1 Nov. 305 Univac, the ‘Giant Brain’, an electronic automatic computer. 1954K. W. Gatland Devel. Guided Missile (ed. 2) iv. 109 In the self-homing device we have a ‘brain unit’ capable of making high-g turns and of operating..control entirely beyond human capabilities.
4. fig. Intellectual power, intellect, sense, thought, imagination. (From 16th c. often plural.)
1393Gower Conf. III. 4 That is nought for lake of braine. 1526Tindale 1 Tim. vi. 4 He wasteth his braynes aboute questions. 1571Golding Calvin on Ps. ix. 12 David did not vpon his oun brayn appoint God a dwelling place there. 1618Barnevelt's Apol. G iij, Hee that hath any brayne, sees hee is not well in his wittes. 1732Pope Ess. Man ii. 47 Tricks to shew the stretch of human brain. 1763Churchill Candidate (R.) Let those who boast the uncommon gift of brains, The laurel pluck. 1861J. Brown Horæ Subs. Ser. i. 171 ‘Pray, Mr. Opie, may I ask you what you mix your colours with?’..‘With brains, sir!’ was the gruff reply.
b. Phrases. † to bear a brain: to be cautious, thoughtful, have brains. to suck (or pick) a person's brains: to elicit and appropriate the results of his thought. † of the same brain: in the same strain of thought, similarly conceived. (But cf. of the same bran.)
1526Skelton Magnyf. 1422, I counsel you, bere a brayne. 1592G. Harvey Pierces Super. 120 Some potestats..will by fittes beare a braine. 1652Bp. Hall Invis. World i. viii, These [tales] and a thousand more of the same brain. 1808Scott Marm. vi. xvi, Eustace, thou bear'st a brain.
c. colloq. A clever person; so the brains: the cleverest person (in a group, etc.); a ‘master-mind’. (Cf. 1844 fig. quot. for sense 3 a.)
1914W. Owen Let. 21 Dec. (1967) 309 This gentleman is, all round, an ‘interesting’ pupil, and what the French call ‘a Brain’. 1923E. Wallace Capt. Souls xxxv. 197, I felt like a fourth form boy listening to a ‘brain’, and found myself being respectful! 1925H. Leverage in Flynn's 3 Jan. 693/1 Brains, the one who works out plans for a robbery. 1954‘N. Blake’ Whisper in Gloom i. vi. 75 The Brain's got what it takes. 1958Times 20 Jan. 5/5 Admiral Sir William Wynter, ‘the brains’ of the victory.
5. Comb.; general relations.
a. attributive: Of the physical brain, as brain-ache, brain-atoms, brain-capacity, brain-chamber, brain-condition, brain-cortex, brain-giddiness, brain-matter, brain-softening, brain-symptom; of the brain as the seat of intelligence, as brain-chart, brain-fancy, brain-labour, brain-power, brain-war, brain-work.
1862Lytton Str. Story II. 280 His crown, with its *brain-ache of care.
1936Discovery Nov. 351/2 The largest [skull on record] is that of Turgenev, the Russian novelist, which had a *brain capacity of 2,030 c. cm.
1870Gladstone Prim. Homer (1878) 61 The poetical unity of Homer's *brain-chart.
1890W. James Princ. Psychol. I. vi. 162 Certain *brain-conditions occur together which, if they occurred separately, would produce a lot of lower states. Ibid. x. 399 We speculate on the brain-condition during all these different perversions of personality.
Ibid. xiv. 567 The amount of activity at any given point in the *brain-cortex is the sum of the tendencies of all other points to discharge into it.
1657Brome Queene's Exch. iv. i, The *brain-giddiness of these wilful Lords.
1864Tennyson Aylmer's F. 447 Prodigal of all *brain-labour he.
1878Hooker & Ball Marocco 150 By their superior *brain-power.
1883Harper's Mag. June 125/1 *Brain-softening or degeneration of the spinal cord.
1845Geo. Eliot Let. 13 June (1954) I. 195 It always gives one satisfaction to see the evidence of *brain work. 1871M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. III. xi. 252 Men who are wise do no brainwork save in summer. 1931J. S. Huxley What dare I Think? ii. 69 Pure brain-work like that of a mathematician.
b. objective and objective-genitive; as brain-wright n.; brain-breaking, brain-fretting, brain-purging, brain-smoking, brain-spattering adjs.
1616B. Holyday Persius 317 *Brain-purging, hellebore.
a1654Selden Engl. Epin. iii. §19 *Brain-smoaking liquors.
1823Byron Juan ix. iv, War's a *brain-spattering..art.
1602Davies Mirum in Mod. 7 (D.) The *Brayn-wrights skill And wisdome infinite.
c. instrumental and locative: as brain-begot, brain-born, brain-bred, brain-cracked, brain-crazed, brain-fevered, brain-spun, brain-strong adjs., also brain-worker n.; brainlike adj.
1596C. Fitzgeffrey Sir F. Drake (1881) 22 Joves *braine-borne Pallades.
1812Byron Ch. Har. ii. vii, With *brain-born dreams of evil.
1630J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. iii. 122/2 His *braine-bred Daughter.
1657Brome Queene's Exch. iii. Wks. 1873 III. 497, I fear he's *brain-crack'd, lunatick.
1652― North. Lasse i. v Wks. III. 11 The Master and the man both *brain-cras'd.
1849Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. IV. 141/2 Cerebral substance..replaced by a *brain-like matter.
1832J. C. Hare in Philol. Mus. I. 643 *Brain-spun systems of metaphysics. 1863G. W. Dasent Jest & Earnest (1873) II. 273 True it is, as the saw goes, ‘Bairns are brain-strong’.
1878Holbrook Hygiene of Brain 91 A farmer may be a *brain-worker.
6. Special combinations: brain-axis = brain-stem; brain-ball, the brain of an enemy slain in combat made into a ball by mixing it with lime and preserved as a trophy; † brain-being, -brat, a creature of the fancy; brain-box, the skull; † brain-break, a conception that overtasks the brain; brain-cap, the upper part of the skull; brain-case (= brain-box); brain-cell, one of the cells forming the tissue of the brain; brain-centre, any nerve-centre in the brain, esp. one of those supposed to be the controlling centres of particular functions; also fig.; brain-child colloq., the product of a person's mind; an invention; brain-coral, coral resembling in form the convolutions of the brain; brain-crack, a craze or crotchet; brain damage, physical injury to or deterioration of the brain that leaves its function permanently and substantially impaired; hence brain-damaged a.; brain death, irreversible loss of function in the cerebrum and brain-stem of such a degree that respiration and circulation continue only if artificially maintained; so brain-dead a.; brain drain, phrase used colloq. of the ‘loss’ of highly trained or qualified people by emigration, particularly to the U.S.; brain-dressed a., of skins, dressed with a liquor prepared by boiling deer brains; brain-fag, exhaustion of the brain by prolonged mental strain; brain-fagged a., suffering from brain-fag; brain-fever, a term for inflammation of the brain, ‘and also for other fevers, as typhus, with brain complications’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); brain-fever bird, an Indian hawk-cuckoo (Cuculus varius) having a persistent cry; brain-lit a., enlightened by thought; brain-mantle, the upper part of the brain; brain-mass, (a) material quantity of brain; (b) the brain, regarded as a material object; brain-path, one of a number of supposed lines of conduction in the brain, along which nervous impulses come to travel more readily than by other routes; also attrib.; brain-picker, one who ‘picks’ the brains of another (cf. pick v.1 9); brain-racking vbl. n., racking of the brain; mental torture or anguish; also ppl. a.; brain-sand, minute particles of gritty substance found chiefly in the pineal gland; brain scan, a scan of the brain to ascertain the distribution of radioactivity in it following the intravenous administration of a radio-isotope (used as a diagnostic aid for tumours); brain scanner, an apparatus for performing a brain scan; so brain scanning vbl. n.; brain-shed, the scattering of brains; † brain-squirt, a childish attempt at reasoning; brain-stage, the imagination; 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; brain-stone (= brain-coral); brain-storm, (a) ‘a succession of sudden and severe phenomena, due to some cerebral disturbance’ (Gould 1894); (b) U.S. colloq. = brain-wave (c); (c) U.S., a concerted ‘attack’ on a problem, usu. by amassing a number of spontaneous ideas which are then discussed; also attrib.; so as v., to make such an attack; hence brain-storming vbl. n. and ppl. a.; brain-stuff, (a) medicine for the brain; (b) the product of thinking; ideas; brain-sugar (see quot.); brain-teaser or -twister (orig. U.S.), a difficult problem; a puzzle; brain-trick, a cunning device; brain-tunic, a membrane enveloping the brain; brain-vibration, an excitation or nervous discharge in the brain; brain-wave, (a) a hypothetical telepathic vibration; (b) (usu. in pl.) a measurable electrical impulse in the brain; (c) colloq., a sudden inspiration or bright idea; brain-worm, a worm infesting the brain; fig. a wriggling disputant. Also brain-pan, brainsick, brain-wood.
1894Gould Dict. Med. 233 *B[rain] axis, that portion of the brain-substance including the island of Reil, the basal ganglia, the crura, pons, medulla, and cerebellum.
[1809D. O'Connor tr. Keating's Gen. Hist. Ireland I. 279 Ceat..placed his ball of brains in a sling.] 1904Westm. Gaz. 9 July 5/1 The old king, who sat with the *brain-ball on his head. 1907Folk-Lore June 228 Mesgegra's brain-ball, an object that could be slung from a sling.
1659Fuller App. Inj. Innoc. (1840) 450 A mere wit-work, or *brain-being, without any other real existence.
1630R. H. in J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. Pref. Verses, One Bacchus, and some other Venus urges, To blesse their *brain-brats.
1895A. H. Keane Ethnology iii. 46 The *brain-cap of many savages has been found to be larger and heavier than that of some higher races.
1741Monro Anat. (ed. 3) 78 The several Bones of which the *Brain-case consists.
1887W. James Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) 290 Even in the case of congenital defect of the extremities, the *brain-centres might feel in the usual ancestral way. 1902― Var. Relig. Exper. ix. 212 Our emotional brain-centres strike work, and we lapse into a temporary apathy. 1904Westm. Gaz. 3 Mar. 1/3 From its brain-centre in the middle of the floor of the New York Stock Exchange the recording instruments of the Exchange Company print out continuously the news of the transactions.
1881Househ. Words 1 Oct. 450/2 The *brain-children [i.e. novels] of the illustrious dead. 1882Swinburne Lett. (1960) IV. 284 The most unlucky and despised of all my brain-children. 1921Wodehouse Jill the Reckless xvii. 254 The almost maternal yearning to see his brain-child once more, which can never be wholly crushed out of a young dramatist. 1958J. Cannan And be a Villain iv. 81 How well I know that filing system. It was my own brain-child.
1709–11Petiver Gazophyl. Decas Sept. 6/2 Tab. 68 Common American *Brain Corall... So call'd for its likeness to humane Brains. 1936Russell & Yonge Seas (ed. 2) vii. 162 The well-known Meandrina or Brain-coral.
1851Thackeray Eng. Hum. (1866) 107 What would Sir Roger de Coverley be without..his charming *brain-cracks?
1951Pediatrics VII. 212 Several clinical reports have described the association of insulin hypoglycemia in juvenile diabetes with psychiatric disturbances or *brain damage. 1959Jrnl. Chronic Dis. IX. 223 Brain damage in the aged..is presumed present when there is evidence of defects of orientation, memory, and comprehension. 1974Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Stud. III. ii. xxxv. 71/2 A confusional or delirious state may be the first indication of the presence of structural brain damage.
1954Pediatrics XIV. 479/1 ‘*Brain damaged’ children. 1959Jrnl. Chronic Dis. IX. 221 Aged mentally ill persons fall into several groups. The largest group of seriously disordered persons are the aged who are chronically ill, many of whom are brain damaged. 1983Listener 1 Sept. 14/3 Our third child was born brain-damaged.
1976Time 12 Apr. 50 Because Karen was not ‘*brain dead’, few lawyers were surprised when Judge Robert Muir ruled against any ‘pulling of the plug’. 1986Telegraph (Brisbane) 12 June 5/5 A 17-day-old boy who last night was given the heart of a brain-dead infant..gave no sign of rejecting the new organ.
1964Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 12 Oct. 113/2 Medicolegal texts do not mention the consideration of *brain death by EEG. 1974Times 5 Apr. 18 He insists that the donor heart should still be beating when the operation to remove it starts. That is possible only when the concept of ‘brain death’ is accepted and at present would probably not be ethically permissible in Britain. 1979Removal of Cadaveric Organs for Transplantation (Health Depts U.K.) 11/1 This Working Party accepts the view held by the Conference of Royal Colleges that death can..be diagnosed by the irreversible cessation of brain-stem function—‘brain death’. In diagnosing brain death the criteria laid down by the Colleges should be followed. 1984Listener 29 Mar. 8/2 The Panorama on brain-death apparently challenged medical orthodoxy.
1963P. Fairley in Evening Standard 7 Jan. 1/2 Nearly one quarter of Britain's best young scientists and technologists are being magnetised to jobs in North America. About 10 per cent are settling there. This is the shock finding of experts who have spent months investigating the ‘*brain drain’ across the Atlantic. 1964News Front Apr. 15 The United Kingdom is deeply concerned about its ‘brain drain’.
1887Harper's Mag. June 61/2 These [deerskin leggings] were prepared of *brain-dressed skins that perfectly turned the rain and dew.
1851Dunglison Dict. Med. Sci. (ed. 8) 596 A hypochondriacal condition,..termed by some cerebropathy; by others, *brain-fag. 1884W. James in Mind IX. 17 In states of extreme brain-fag the horizon is narrowed almost to the passing word. 1903McFaul Ike Glidden ii. 13 He continued in this brain-fagged and mentally-deranged condition for several weeks.
1833Marryat P. Simple (1863) 367, I had a *brain-fever, which lasted six or seven days. 1885March. Dufferin in Vice-regal Life in India (1890) ii. 30 The ‘brainfever’ bird repeats his name over and over again until he nearly gives you the malady itself. 1901Badminton Mag. Mar. 243 The ceaseless, irritating cry of the brain-fever bird.
1879G. H. Lewes Problems III. iii. 416 The corona (what the Germans call the *Brain-mantle because it covers the other parts). 1894H. Ellis Man & Woman v. 105 The cerebrum, or brain-mantle.
1879G. H. Lewes Problems III. ii. 67 The popular argument.., showing more *brain-mass to be accompanied by greater..intelligence, breaks down. 1915E. R. Lankester Diversions of Naturalist 270 The mere shape of the brain-mass.
1890W. James Princ. Psychol. II. xvii. 8 As the currents vary, and the *brain-paths are moulded by them, other thoughts with other ‘objects’ come. 1892― Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) 319 The brain-path theory based on reflex action..helps them to analyze their cases. 1925C. Fox Educ. Psychol. 143 Fall back on brain-paths to account for the phenomena of memory.
1810Lady Lyttelton Let. 11 Feb. (1912) 94 He will meet a formidable body of *brain-pickers. 1963Times 25 Mar. 15/1 Very successful farmers are apt to be inveterate brain-pickers.
1892‘Mark Twain’ Amer. Claimant i. 4 My very footfalls time themselves to the *brain-racking rhythm. 1897Daily News 30 Mar. 8/1 It is this that causes the English in South Africa so much brain-racking. 1905Westm. Gaz. 22 Mar. 1/3 It was a noisy..monster..and began its torturing, brain-racking persecution at eight in the morning. 1905Daily Chron. 29 Sept. 3/3 Some less brain-racking railway guide.
1857Dunglison Med. Lex. 718/1 Pineal Gland... It almost always contains sabulous particles, Sabulum conarii, *Brain Sand, Pineal Sand. 1873T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2) 75 The corpora amylacea..are very liable to become calcified, and they then constitute one form of ‘brain sand’.
[1960Southern Med. Jrnl. (Nashville, Tennessee) LIII. 418/2 Many modifications in the equipment had to be made..before cerebral scans of good quality could be obtained.] 1961Acta Radiologica Suppl. cci. 29 A *brain scan may be abnormal in two different ways:..areas of increased uptake and..areas of decreased uptake may be shown. 1973Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 21 June 2/1 A brain scan is a painless procedure. 1985O. Sacks Man who mistook Wife for Hat xv. 127, I obtained a brainscan, and this showed that she had indeed had a small thrombosis or infarction in part of her right temporal lobe.
1964Symp. Med. Radioisotope Scanning (Internat. Atomic Energy Agency) II. 81 (heading) Design & function of a *brain scanner for clinical use. 1974Radiology CX. 109 This new technique involves the use of an EMI brain scanner. 1986Economist 26 Apr. 16/2 The magnets used in brain scanners owe much to those developed for past accelerators.
1961in Biol. Abstr. (1962) XXXVIII. 1320/1 (heading) A theoretical evaluation of *brain scanning systems. 1974R. M. Kirk et al. Surgery xiv. 270 Brain scanning after introducing a radioactive substance intravenously..is an extremely useful and painless technique.
1857Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. I. xxiii. 83 The subordinates have resisted in a way that ended in blood and *brain-shed.
1654G. Goddard in Burton Diary Introd. (1828) I. 68 They were but bugbears and *brain-squirts.
1879G. H. Lewes Probl. Life & Mind 3rd Ser. iii. xiv. 416 That large portion of the neural axis which Germans call the *Brain-stem. 1927Haldane & Huxley Anim. Biol. vi. 142 When we are ‘doing nothing’ the cortex is all the time inhibiting the postural centres in the brain-stem from producing rigidity.
1681Grew Musæum ii. v. i. 244 A flat Horney Shrub..Rooted in a kind of *Brain-Stone. 1758Borlase Nat. Hist. Cornw. 240 The fossil corals..such as brain-stone. 1855Kingsley Glaucus 34 A beautiful madrepore or brainstone on your mantelpiece, brought home from some Pacific coral-reef. 1871T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 112 The beautiful structures known as Meandrinæ, or ‘brain-stones’.
1907Daily Chron. 13 Feb. 7/5 Ordeals of mind which formed a *brain-storm or mental explosion. 1908Westm. Gaz. 8 Aug. 4/3 In the closing years of his active life, Ruskin had suffered from recurrent brain-storms. 1922Daily Mail 2 May 5/4 If he were crossed he had brain storms which took the form of violent temper and depression. 1925College Humor Feb. 43/2 He had a brainstorm. 1932Amer. Speech VII. 329 Brain storm, a sudden and usually fortunate thought. 1947I. Asimov in E. Crispin Best SF II (1962) 103 When our missing robot failed of location anywhere..we brain-stormed ourselves into counting the robots left. 1953Manch. Guardian Weekly 12 Feb. 3 They carry behind their every brain⁓storm the authority of the White House. 1953San Francisco Exam. 15 Mar. (Pict. Rev. Sect.) 4/2 Alex Osborn..has contributed to American business a new technique and terminology—the ‘brain storm session’. 1955N.Y. Times 6 Nov. F3/5 They are being taught..how to brainstorm their way to conclusions concerning subjects ranging from world affairs to specific engineering puzzles. 1957Britannica Bk. of Yr. 512/1 Brainstorming, the pooling of ideas towards the solution of a special problem. 1959C. Williams Man in Motion vi. 66 A sort of preliminary brain-storming session.
1911W. Owen Let. 21 Nov. (1967) 97 The borrowed-*brainstuff which I imbibed to help me through the Exam.—Sanatogen. 1933H. G. Wells Shape of Things to Come v. § 8. 426 The abundant release of brain-stuff, the mental plenty which has resulted from the organization of material plenty. 1948E. H. W. Meyerstein Let. 9 Nov. (1959) 352 Ethel Smyth..used his brainstuff as a libretto for her cantata.
1901Dorland Med. Dict. (ed. 2), Cerebrose, *brain-sugar, C6H12O6; a principle derivable from the brain-substance, and sometimes found in diabetic sugar.
1923H. C. Witwer Fighting Blood iv. 105 While you're puzzling over that *brain teaser, I'll get back to Judy. 1966Ogilvy & Anderson Excurs. Number Theory vi. 82 Here are some of the super brain-teasers that Sierpinski asks us to ponder.
1922John Martin's Big Bk. for Little Folk 256 Fascinating *brain twisters never so hard as to discourage nor so easy as to fail of sustained interest. 1942R. G. Collingwood New Leviathan xvi. 116 This is a famous brain-twister planted upon the world by Kant and Fichte.
1890W. James Princ. Psychol. I. v. 129 Then the last *brain-vibration would discharge downward into the motor tracts. 1905A. R. Wallace My Life II. 309 Thought or brain-vibrations, may be carried by the ether to other brains.
1869C. Reade Put Yourself in his Place (1870) II. ii. 67 Now that very afternoon, as if by the influence of what they call a *brain⁓wave, Grace Carden..was moved to ask [etc.]. 1871A. T. Ritchie Lett. (1924) 147 You must have sent a brain wave, for oddly enough we had all just read the book..when your letter came saying you too had been reading it. 1886Proc. Soc. Psych. Research Oct. 178 Such expressions as ‘brain⁓waves’ (Knowles), ‘mentiferous ether’ (Maudsley)..testify to this natural, though premature, desire to ticket or identify a force which..cannot at present be correlated with nerve-force [etc.]. 1890Harper's Mag. Apr. 744/1 Lucilla, with what she was fond of terming a brain wave, comprehended the situation. 1916Blackw. Mag. Aug. 264/1 Then the wirers got brain waves, saw the folly of their first orders,..and began to panic terribly. 1917W. P. Ridge Amazing Years xi. 160 It's a brain wave... Aunt Weston, how bright you are! 1926Galsworthy Escape ii. vi. 72 Look here! I've got a brain-wave. Let's all go into Widecombe in the car? 1935Discovery Jan. 1/1 By means of electrical records made through the skull various states of the brain can be recognised; but the ‘brain waves’ thus recorded do not appear to be the result of thought-action. 1959Listener 1 Oct. 534/3 Study of the activity of the brain of puppies with the electro-encephalograph for ‘brain waves’..reveals a juvenile type of wave form.
1645Milton Colast. Wks. (1851) 364 This *Brain-worm against all the Laws of Dispute, will needs deal with them heer.
[6.] brain-dead a. Substitute for lemma: brain-dead a., (a) having suffered brain death; (b) slang (orig. U.S.), lacking in (esp. intellectual) vigour; feeble-minded, stupid, vapid; also, enervated, moribund.
1976Time 12 Apr. 50 Because Karen was not ‘brain dead’, few lawyers were surprised when Judge Robert Mair ruled against any ‘pulling of the plug’. 1981Washington Post 15 Jan. d15/1 Dickstein says he considers Brenner's success remarkable ‘for a person who has been essentially brain-dead for years’. 1986Telegraph (Brisbane) 12 June 5/5 A 17-day-old boy who last night was given the heart of a brain-dead infant..gave no sign of rejecting the new organ. 1988Times 26 Apr. 2/4 Mr Norman Tebbit, the former Conservative Party chairman, yesterday pronounced socialism as ‘brain-dead’ in Britain. 1990Daily Mirror 3 Feb. 10, I squealed as..Randy Ron..dropped his G-string to have his way with brain-dead yomping freak Billy. 1993USA Weekend 24 Jan. 20/1 They will invigorate brain-dead offices..with a sense of mission.
▸ brain food n. orig. U.S. (a) intellectual sustenance; something which stimulates thought or creativity; (b) food believed to be beneficial to the brain, esp. in increasing intellectual power.
1872Galaxy Apr. 555/2 You knew British literature to be the *brain-food of America. 1875Overland Monthly Apr. 300/1 It is generally accounted that fish is rich in brain-food. 1896Argosy Jan. 398/1 One doctor declares the apple to be an excellent brain food. 1928P. Bowles Let. in In Touch (1994) 3 The great majority of persons insist upon their brainfood's being refined, and go so far as to claim that the pure inspiration is worth nothing until refined. 1992New Scientist 22 Feb. 47/3 Dr Grierson was unloved by her parents, is cold, can't cook and insists on feeding children macrobiotic brain food which Fred sicks up. 1998New Scientist 25 July 62/3 Definitely a book to dip into and reflect on—a superior form of brainfood for the beach this summer perhaps?
▸ brain freeze n. N. Amer. colloq. (a) sudden mental paralysis; a lapse of memory or concentration, a mental block; (b) = ice cream headache n. at ice-cream n. Additions
1988Eng. Jrnl. 77 64, I remember heart palpitations, silent prayers that the teacher would ask what I'd remembered of the details.., and *brain freeze. 1991Union Leader (Manchester, New Hampsh.) (Nexis) 27 May 4 Got a brain freeze from drinking a Dairy Queen ‘Mr. Misty’ too fast. 2004Washington Post (Home ed.) 6 July f2/1 Slurpees aren't exactly health food. But..the sweet slush might cause brain freeze. 2006Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) (Nexis) 23 Oct. You're not sure if that's F or A minor because you're having a brain freeze.
▸ brain surgery n. neurosurgery; (hence humorously) something requiring a high level of intelligence or expertise (freq. in negative constructions, implying that something is not difficult); cf. rocket science n. at rocket n.3 Additions.
1884Times 16 Dec. 7/4 The boundaries of *brain surgery will be enlarged year by year. 1971Nature 23 Apr. 524/1 Brain surgery which may affect language mechanisms is being contemplated. 1978Chicago Tribune 14 May d4 It [sc. management of a business] isn't easy, but it isn't brain surgery either. 2002Time 15 Apr. 77/2 The setup is a little more involved, but it's still not brain surgery.
▪ II. † brain, a. Obs.
[Cf. brainish.]
Furious, mad.
c1340Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 286 If any..Be so bolde in his blod, brayn in hys hede. 1513Douglas æneis xi. xvii. 73 He walxis brayne in furour bellicall. 1809J. Skinner Collect. Poetry 126 (Jam.), I wat right weel he was fu' brain.
▪ III. brain, v.|breɪn|
Also 4–6 brayne, 5–6 brane, 7 braine.
[f. the n.]
1. trans. To dash (any one's) brains out; to kill by dashing out the brains.
1382Wyclif Isa. lxvi. 3 That sleth a beste, as that brayne a dogge. 1489Caxton Faytes of A. ii. xxxvii. 156 Thenne shall they of the towne brayne hem with stones. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iii. 24 If I were now by this Rascall, I could braine him with his Ladies Fan. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 45 Hee desperately brained himselfe. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon I. 31 He was most cruelly murder'd, by being brain'd like an Ox. 1884Tennyson Becket 201 Methought they would have brain'd me with it, John.
fig.1603Shakes. Meas. for M. v. i. 401 It was the swift celeritie of his death..That brain'd my purpose.
†2. To conceive in the brain. Obs. rare.
1611Shakes. Cymb. v. iv. 147 Such stuffe as Madmen Tongue and braine not.
3. To furnish with a brain.
1882W. B. Weeden Soc. Law Labor 94 Both the labor and capital must be headed, brained, as it were, with thought.
Hence, ˈbrainer, ˈbraining vbl. n.
c1440Promp. Parv. 47 Braynynge, or kyllynge, excerebracio. 1842De Quincey Wks. (1863) XIII. 306 Not only the stone must be a bouncer..but it ought to be..a good brainer, viz., splinting-jagged. |