brain-dead

• brain dead, braindead

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]

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹeɪnˌdɛd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

brain-dead (comparative more brain-dead, superlative most brain-dead)

1. (medicine, not comparable) Having an irreversible loss of brain function and cessation of brain activity.
   • 2010 February 22, Michael S. Schmidt, Karen Zraick, “Hit and Run in Brooklyn Leaves One Brain-Dead”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     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. (colloquial) Having no useful thoughts; stupid; ditzy.
   • 2003 May 13, Mark Baard, quoting Marvin Minsky, “AI Founder Blasts Modern Research”, in Wired‎^[2], →ISSN:

     "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.

• Brain-dead is occasionally used to describe a person in a coma. This may cause confusion because in formal medical use brain-dead means dead rather than comatose.

brain-dead (plural brain-deads)

1. (derogatory, informal) An unintelligent person.
   • 2015 October 6, Sarah J. Schmitt, It's a Wonderful Death, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

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

• brain death

• comatose
• vegetative
• dain-bread (spoonerism)