Definition of "brain"

brain

/bɹeɪn/

noun
countable and uncountable, 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.
  Quotations
  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.
  2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 189, number 6, page 34
  1. A part of the brain, especially associated with particular mental functions, abilities, etc.
    Quotations
    The left brain, or that which supplies and animates the right side of the body, is the most active brain, as a general rule.
    1892, Benjamin Ward Richardson, The Asclepiad, London, page 357
    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.
    1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 113
2. (informal) An intelligent person.
  Quotations
  Peebee: The brains and I are comparing Remnant notes and filling in the blanks.
  2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: Nexus
  1. (plural only) A person who provides the intelligence required for something.
3. (in the plural) Intellect.
  Quotations
  "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.
  2008 Quaker Action (magazine) Rights trampled in rush to deport immigrant workers, Fall 2008, Vol. 89, No. 3, p. 8
  1. (in the singular) An intellectual or mental capacity.
4. By analogy with a human brain, the part of a machine or computer that performs calculations.
5. (slang, vulgar, uncountable) Oral sex.
  Quotations
  Have you ever popped champagne on a plane, while gettin' some brain?
  2007, “Good Life”, in Graduation, performed by Kanye West ft. T-Pain
  You said I got brain from your dame in the rangeIn the passing laneBut you really ain't got no proof
  2012, Mack Maine featuring Turk and Mystikal, I'm On It
  She giving brain / She eat the dick up like some M&Ms
  2018, “Squidrific”, performed by SahBabii
6. (informal) Mind.
  Quotations
  And I should tell him all my pain,⁠And how my life had droop’d of late,⁠And he should sorrow o’er my stateAnd marvel what possess’d my brain; […]
  1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], canto XIV, page 22
7. A loose compartment of a backpack that straps on over the top opening.
verb
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.
  Quotations
  There thou maiſt braine him,
  1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii], page 12
  It was the ſwift celeritie of his death / […] That brain'd my purpoſe:
  c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i], page 82, column 2
  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.
  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
4. (transitive, obsolete) To conceive in the mind; to understand.
  Quotations
  'Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen / Tongue, and brain not.
  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[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene iv]

Definition of "brain"

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