brain 1 S2 W2 / breɪn / 名词

1 organ [可数名词] the organ inside your head that controls how you think, feel, and move :

Messages from the brain are carried by the central nervous system.

the chemistry of the brain

the human brain

the right/left hemisphere of the brain (= the right or left side of the brain )

Emotional responses are a function of the right hemisphere of the brain.

She died of a brain tumour .

brain tissue/cell

2 intelligence [可数名词，通常复数，不可数] the ability to think clearly and learn quickly :

If you had any brains, you’d know what I meant.

The job requires brains.

Something’s addled your brains (= made you confused ) .

Come on, use your brain , John.

3 person [可数名词，通常复数] informal someone who is intelligent, with good ideas and useful skills :

Some of our best brains are leaving the country to work in the US. → brain drain

4 food [不可数名词] ( also brains [复数形式] ) the brain of an animal, used as food

5 have something on the brain informal to be always thinking about something :

I’ve got that song on the brain today.

6 be the brains behind/of something to be the person who thought of and developed a particular plan, system, or organization, especially a successful one :

Danny’s definitely the brains of the project.

7 brain dead

a) in a state where your brain has stopped working properly, even though your heart may still be beating

b) informal in a state in which you seem stupid or uninteresting, especially because you live a boring life or are very tired

8 something is not brain surgery informal used to say that something is not difficult to do

→ bird-brain , hare-brained , → beat your brains out at beat 1 ( 22 ) , → pick sb’s brains at pick 1 ( 7 ) , → rack your brain(s) at rack 2 ( 2 )

COLLOCATIONS

动词

have brains You should have more brains than to smoke.

use your brain It’s easy if you just use your brain.

rack your brains (= try very hard to think of something ) If we all rack our brains we should come up with some ideas.

pick sb’s brains (= ask someone for ideas ) I thought I’d pick Greg’s brains about what to take with us.

it takes/requires brains to do something It takes brains to think of a plan like that.

something addles your brain (= makes you unable to think clearly ) The alcohol had addled his brain.

形容词

a good/quick brain It was obvious that Ann had a good brain.