Brainlock

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The situation where a person's brain seems to freeze up, preventing them from proceeding. informal, uncountable

    "Pilots worry about "brainlock" — that sickening sensation when you pull out of a vertical dive at near 200 mph and have no idea what figure comes next."

Example

More examples

"Pilots worry about "brainlock" — that sickening sensation when you pull out of a vertical dive at near 200 mph and have no idea what figure comes next."

Etymology

From brain + lock.

Related phrases

freeze up

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