• enPR: brān, IPA: /bɹeɪn/

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.
2. (informal) An intelligent person.

   She was a total brain.

   1. (plurale tantum) 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.

   She 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

6. (informal, slang) Mind.

   I have too much on my brain today.

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

• French: cerveau, (pejorative or when used as food) cervelle, encéphale
• German: Gehirn, Hirn
• Italian: cervello, (pejorative or when used as food) cervella
• Portuguese: cérebro
• Russian: мозг
• Spanish: cerebro

• French: cerveau, tête
• German: Superhirn, Intelligenzbestie
• Portuguese: crânio (slang)

• French: cerveau
• German: Kopf
• Portuguese: cabeça
• Russian: мозг

• German: Verstand, Köpfchen, Grips, Hirn
• Portuguese: intelecto
• Russian: мозг
• Spanish: seso, sesudez

• French: processeur

brain (brains, present participle braining; 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.
   • 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

     There thou mayst brain him.

   • c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, “Measvre for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene i]:

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

4. (transitive, obsolete) To conceive in the mind; to understand.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance)​, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene iv]:

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

1. Surname