BRAIN • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Brain

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noun

Brain n.

(Anat.) The whitish mass of soft matter (the center of the nervous system, and the seat of consciousness and volition) which is inclosed in the cartilaginous or bony cranium of vertebrate animals. It is simply the anterior termination of the spinal cord, and is developed from three embryonic vesicles, whose cavities are connected with the central canal of the cord; the cavities of the vesicles become the central cavities, or ventricles, and the walls thicken unequally and become the three segments, the fore-, mid-, and hind-brain. Note: In the brain of man the cerebral lobes, or largest part of the forebrain, are enormously developed so as to overhang the cerebellum, the great lobe of the hindbrain, and completely cover the lobes of the midbrain. The surface of the cerebrum is divided into irregular ridges, or convolutions, separated by grooves (the so-called fissures and sulci), and the two hemispheres are connected at the bottom of the longitudinal fissure by a great transverse band of nervous matter, the corpus callosum, while the two halves of the cerebellum are connected on the under side of the brain by the bridge, or pons Varolii.

(Zool.) The anterior or cephalic ganglion in insects and other invertebrates.

The organ or seat of intellect; hence, the understanding; as, use your brains. " My brain is too dull." Note: In this sense, often used in the plural.

The affections; fancy; imagination. (R.)

A very intelligent person. (informal)

The controlling electronic mechanism for a robot, guided missile, computer, or other device exhibiting some degree of self-regulation. (informal)

To have on the brain, to have constantly in one's thoughts, as a sort of monomania. (Low)

no-brainer a decision requiring little or no thought; an obvious choice. (slang)

Brain box or Brain case, the bony or cartilaginous case inclosing the brain.

Brain coral, Brain stone coral (Zool.), a massive reef-building coral having the surface covered by ridges separated by furrows so as to resemble somewhat the surface of the brain, esp. such corals of the genera Maeandrina and Diploria.

Brain fag (Med.), brain weariness. See Cerebropathy.

Brain fever (Med.), fever in which the brain is specially affected; any acute cerebral affection attended by fever.

Brain sand, calcareous matter found in the pineal gland.

verb

Brain v. t. (past & past part. brained; pres. part. braining)

To dash out the brains of; to kill by beating out the brains. Hence, Fig.: To destroy; to put an end to; to defeat. "There thou mayst brain him." "It was the swift celerity of the death... That brained my purpose."

To conceive; to understand. (Obs.) "'T is still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen Tongue, and brain not."

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Etymology of 'Brain'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Brain" Quotes from Famous Books

... and watching the play of her features, a spark entered General Ople's brain, causing him, in forgetfulness of collar and caricatures, to ejaculate, 'Seventy? Did your ladyship say seventy? Utterly impossible! You ...

— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... Ideas and passions of purely immaterial origin pervade every nerve with terrific intensity, and shake his encasing corporeity like an earthquake. A thought, a sentiment, a fancy, may prostrate him as effectually as a blow on his brain from a hammer. He wills to move a palsied limb: the soul is unaffected by the paralysis, but the muscles refuse to obey his volition: the distinction between the person willing and the instrument to be ...

— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... they were Harry's sisters, and hearing that they were not so was silent, looking up first to one, and then to the other, and then towards Harry himself; and it could be easily seen that her brain was busy though her tongue was silent. A hut had been prepared for the chief, suitable to his wants, though bearing little resemblance to a royal palace. He came the next day to see his daughter, and appeared to be so well pleased with ...

— The Settlers - A Tale of Virginia • William H. G. Kingston

... books, no doubt, were tossed about in confusion, thus forming a visible emblem of the manner in which their contents were crowded into Cotton Mather's brain. And in the middle of the room stood table, on which, besides printed volumes, were strewn manuscript sermons, historical tracts, and political pamphlets, all written in such a queer, blind, crabbed, fantastical hand, that a writing-master would have gone raving mad at the sight of them. By this ...

— Grandfather's Chair • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... compartments, showered over with arabesques, the gilded pillars, the moving mass of promenaders, the endless labyrinth of human beings assembled from every region in Europe, the costly dresses, repeated by a host of mirrors, all this combined, which the eye conveys to the brain at a single glance, utterly fails in description. As with the eye, so it is with the ear; at every step a new language falls upon it, and every tongue with different intonation, for the high and the low, the prince, peer, vassal, and tradesman, ...

— The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims - Volume I (of II) • Andrew Steinmetz

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