brain freezen.
/ˈbreɪn friːz/, U.S. /ˈbreɪn ˌfriz/ colloquial (originally North American).
1. The freezing of funding for scientific research. Cf. freeze n.1 2b.Apparently an isolated use.
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1968 Canad. Aeronaut. & Space Jrnl. June 219/2 I am not nearly as worried about the brain drain as I am about what you might call the ‘brain freeze’ in our Canadian universities.
2. Sudden mental paralysis; a momentary lapse of memory or concentration, a mental block.
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the mind > mental capacity > memory > faulty recollection > [noun] > act of forgetting
forgetting1340
unmindinga1382
forgetfulness1398
forget1861
memory lapse1893
brain freeze1985
1985 Laurel (Mississippi) Leader-Call 21 Dec. 4/3 I have never heard of a brain freeze... Well, maybe my brain is on vacation.
1988 Eng. Jrnl. 77 64 I remember heart palpitations, silent prayers that the teacher would ask what I'd remembered of the details.., and brain freeze.
2006 Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) (Nexis) 23 Oct. You're not sure if that's F or A minor because you're having a brain freeze.
2021 Times (Nexis) 11 Jan. (Sport section) 4 Then March curled in what looked like the winner before Steele's brain freeze and Webster's misfortune took the tie to extra time.
3. Severe but usually short-lived pain in the frontal or temporal region of the head, induced by the consumption of very cold food or drink or by other exposure to cold; an instance of this. Cf. ice cream headache n.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > pain in specific parts > [noun] > in head > other pains in head
Bordeaux hammer1576
ale passion1593
clavus1807
brain freeze1986
1986 Oshkosh Advance Titan (Univ. of Wisconsin-Oshkosh) 10 Apr. 16/3 Another pain is brain freeze. Brain freeze is what you get when you eat ice cream too fast.
1991 Union Leader (Manchester, New Hampsh.) (Nexis) 27 May 4 Got a brain freeze from drinking a Dairy Queen ‘Mr. Misty’ too fast.
2004 Washington Post 6 July (Home ed.) f2/1 Slurpees aren't exactly health food. But..the sweet slush might cause brain freeze.
2017 Advertiser (Austral.) (Nexis) 27 Aug. 3 Ice cream lover Luca, 9, says he likes to take his time to avoid getting a brain freeze.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2021; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1968