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(), n.[OE. brain, brein, AS. bragen, brgen; akin to LG. brgen, bregen, D. brein, and perh. to Gr. , the upper part of head, if =. 95.] 1. (Anat.) The whitish mass of soft matter (the center of the nervous system, and the seat of consciousness and volition) which is inclosed in the cartilaginous or bony cranium of vertebrate animals. It is simply the anterior termination of the spinal cord, and is developed from three embryonic vesicles, whose cavities are connected with the central canal of the cord; the cavities of the vesicles become the central cavities, or ventricles, and the walls thicken unequally and become the three segments, the fore-, mid-, and hind-brain. In the brain of man the cerebral lobes, or largest part of the forebrain, are enormously developed so as to overhang the cerebellum, the great lobe of the hindbrain, and completely cover the lobes of the midbrain. The surface of the cerebrum is divided into irregular ridges, or convolutions, separated by grooves (t Brain (), v. t.[imp. & p. p.Brained (); p. pr. & vb. n.Braining.] 1. To dash out the brains of; to kill by beating out the brains. Hence, Fig.: To destroy; to put an end to; to defeat. There thou mayst brain him. Shak. It was the swift celerity of the death . . . That brained my purpose. Shak. 2. To conceive; to understand. [Obs.] T is still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen Tongue, and brain not. Shak. スポンサード リンク
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