Etymology : Middle English, from Old English brægen; akin to Middle Low German bregen brain, and perhaps to Greek brechmos front part of the head
Pronunciation : 'brAn
Function : noun
Date : before 12th century
1. main organ of the central nervous system, intellect, mind. smash or crush the skull. (See what a brain). to hit on the head: "If you don't tidy your room now, I'll brain you ". brain\brain\ , n. [oe. brain, brein, as. bragen, br?gen; akin to lg. br?gen, bregen, d. brein, and perh. to gr. , the upper part of head, if = . ?95.].
2. (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.
3. (zo?l.) the anterior or cephalic ganglion in insects and other invertebrates.
4. the organ or seat of intellect; hence, the understanding. " my brain is too dull." w. scott.note: in this sense, often used in the plural.
5. the affections; fancy; imagination. [r.].
6. The whitish mass of soft matter which is inclosed in the cartilaginous or bony cranium of vertebrate animals.
7. 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.
8. The anterior or cephalic ganglion in insects and other invertebrates.
9. The organ or seat of intellect; hence, the understanding.
10. The affections; fancy; imagination.
11. To dash out the brains of; to kill by beating out the brains.
12. Hence, Fig.: To destroy; to put an end to; to defeat.
13. To conceive; to understand. that part of the central nervous system that includes all the higher nervous centers; enclosed within the skull; continuous with the spinal cord mental ability; "he's got plenty of brains but no common sense" the brain of certain animals used as meat kill by smashing someone's skull hit on the head.
14. 1. Your brain is the organ inside your head that controls your body's activities and enables you to think and to feel things such as heat and pain. Her father died of a brain tumour.
15. Your brain is your mind and the way that you think. Once you stop using your brain you soon go stale Stretch your brain with this puzzle. = mind, intellect.
16. If someone has brains or a good brain, they have the ability to learn and understand things quickly, to solve problems, and to make good decisions. I had a good brain and the teachers liked me.
17. If someone is the brains behind an idea or an organization, he or she had that idea or makes the important decisions about how that organization is managed. Mr White was the brains behind the scheme Some investigators regarded her as the brains of the gang.
18. If you pick someone's brains, you ask them to help you with a problem because they know more about the subject than you. Why should a successful company allow another firm to pick its brains?.
19. to rack your brains: see:
rack. to hit someone very hard on the head - used humorously. Concentration of nerve tissue in the front or upper end of an animal's body. It handles sensory information, controls motion, is vital to instinctive acts, and in higher vertebrates is the centre of learning. Vertebrate brains consist of the hindbrain (rhombencephalon), midbrain (mesencephalon), and forebrain (prosencephalon). The hindbrain comprises the medulla oblongata and the pons, which connects the spinal cord with higher brain levels and transfers information from the cerebral cortex to the cerebellum. The midbrain, a major sensory integration centre in other vertebrates, serves primarily to link the hindbrain and forebrain in mammals. Large nerve bundles connect the cerebellum to the medulla, pons, and midbrain. In the forebrain the two cerebral hemispheres are connected by a thick bundle of nerve fibres (corpus callosum) and are divided by two deep grooves into four lobes (frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital). The cerebrum, the largest part of the human brain, is involved with its more complex functions. Motor and sensory nerve fibres from each hemisphere cross over in the medulla to control the opposite side of the body.