brain-dead

adjective

ˈbrān-ˌded 

1

: characterized by brain death

2

: lacking intelligence or vitality

brain-dead fools

Synonyms

• airheaded
• birdbrained
• bonehead
• boneheaded
• brainless
• bubbleheaded
• chuckleheaded
• dense
• dim
• dim-witted
• doltish
• dopey
• dopy
• dorky [slang]
• dull
• dumb
• dunderheaded
• empty-headed
• fatuous
• gormless [chiefly British]
• half-witted
• knuckleheaded
• lamebrain
• lamebrained
• lunkheaded
• mindless
• oafish
• obtuse
• opaque
• pinheaded
• senseless
• simple
• slow
• slow-witted
• soft
• softheaded
• stupid
• thick
• thick-witted
• thickheaded
• unintelligent
• unsmart
• vacuous
• weak-minded
• witless

Examples of brain-dead in a Sentence

it seems like she's always doing some brain-dead thing or another

Recent Examples on the Web

California Suspect in clubbing of two women near Venice canals arrested in San Diego April 12, 2024 Alden was declared brain-dead May 20 and removed from life support four days later, after her organs were donated, according to a GoFundMe page set up for her memorial. —Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times, 29 May 2024

She was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, where she was eventually declared brain-dead and later taken off life support. —Charlotte Phillipp, Peoplemag, 26 May 2024

The girl was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced brain-dead and eventually taken off life support, FOX 19 reported. —Brie Stimson, Fox News, 26 May 2024

Police had investigated it as a felony DUI collision but said there would be no more investigative efforts after Heche was declared brain-dead. —Minyvonne Burke, NBC News, 25 Apr. 2024

Previously, pig kidneys have been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors. —Mike Stobbe, Fortune Well, 21 Mar. 2024

The year is 2005, the location Clearwater, Fla., and the parking lot at Suncoast Hospice is jammed with anti-euthanasia activists loudly protesting a judge’s decision to let the brain-dead Terri Schiavo be disconnected from her feeding tube. —Ty Burr, Washington Post, 6 Feb. 2024

On a gurney, a brain-dead patient lay connected to a whirring Rube Goldberg-esque machine: a tangle of tubes and siphons on wheels. —Megan Molteni, STAT, 18 Jan. 2024

But before then, the researchers want to conduct more tests in people who are brain-dead, including those whose own liver is not functioning, and see whether the pig livers can function for up to one week. —Sara Reardon, Scientific American, 18 Jan. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1972, in the meaning defined at sense 1