Skip to content

brain-dead

adjective

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L585771 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈbɹeɪnˌdɛd/

adj

Etymology: From brain + dead. Coined by the Harvard physician Henry K. Beecher in the historical context of the Sixties counterculture and life extension technology of the late twentieth century.

  1. Having an irreversible loss of brain function and cessation of brain activity.

    An employee of the mayor's office was declared brain-dead on Sunday morning after she and another woman were struck by a hit-and-run driver while crossing Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, the authorities said.

  2. Having no useful thoughts; stupid; ditzy.

    "AI has been brain-dead since the 1970s," said AI guru Marvin Minsky in a recent speech at Boston University. Minsky co-founded the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1959 with John McCarthy.

noun

Etymology: From brain + dead. Coined by the Harvard physician Henry K. Beecher in the historical context of the Sixties counterculture and life extension technology of the late twentieth century.

  1. An unintelligent person.

    "What makes you different from all the other brain-deads that come through here?"