BRAIN

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English brægen; akin to Middle Low German bregen ~, and perhaps to Greek brechmos front part of the head Date: before 12th century 1. the portion of the vertebrate central nervous system enclosed in the skull and continuous with the spinal cord through the foramen magnum that is composed of neurons and supporting and nutritive structures (as glia) and that integrates sensory information from inside and outside the body in controlling autonomic function (as heartbeat and respiration), in coordinating and directing correlated motor responses, and in the process of learning, a nervous center in invertebrates comparable in position and function to the vertebrate ~, 2. a. intellect , mind , intellectual endowment ; intelligence , b. a very intelligent or intellectual person, the chief planner of an organization or enterprise, something that performs the functions of a ~, II. transitive verb Date: 14th century to kill by smashing the skull, to hit on the head