brain

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   mental ability

   he's got plenty of brains but no common sense

2. 2
   verb

   to kill by smashing someone's skull

   I was brained 100 times in a row.

3. 3
   verb

   to hit on the head

   I brained that noob with a bat.

4. 4
   noun

   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.

   The Ueynes are ſpred foorth throughout the whole bodie, howbeit from one welhead, that is to ſay from the Liuer: ſo be the Sinews, howbeit from the Brayne; So likewiſe are the Heartſtrings, howbeit from the Heart.

5. 5
   noun

   Mind.

   I have too much on my brain today.

6. 6
   noun

   Intellect.

   "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.

7. 7
   noun

   An intelligent person.

   She was a total brain.

8. 8
   noun

   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.

Etymology

From Middle English brayn, brain, from Old English bræġn (“brain”), from Proto-West Germanic *bragn, from Proto-Germanic *bragną (“brain”), from Proto-Indo-European *mregʰnom (“skull, brain”), from Proto-Indo-European *mregʰ- (“marrow, sinciput”) + *-mn̥ (“nominal suffix”). Cognate with Scots braine, brane (“brain”), North Frisian brayen, brein, Brain (“brain”), Saterland Frisian Brainge, Bräienge (“brain”), West Frisian brein (“brain”), Dutch brein (“brain”), Low German Brägen, Bregen (“brain”) (whence German Bregen (“animal brain”)), Ancient Greek βρεχμός (brekhmós, “front part of the skull,…