Brain-dead

//ˈbɹeɪnˌdɛd// adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An unintelligent person. derogatory, informal

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

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having an irreversible loss of brain function and cessation of brain activity. not-comparable

    "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. 2
    Having no useful thoughts; stupid; ditzy. colloquial, derogatory

    ""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."

Example

More examples

"The doctors tell you that he is brain-dead."

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.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.