to beat someone's brains out
1
9.4
- idiom
- Offensive
:
romperse la cabeza (trabajar o pensar mucho)
- After spending hours on the project, I feel like I have really beaten my brains out trying to get it right.
- beating my brains out trying
Examples
-
I beat my brains out studying for the exam all night, and I'm still not sure I passed.
-
I beat my brains out this morning on a story I am hacking at, and in the afternoon I am exhausted, which is why I haven't got down to the typewriter.
Blog text (3) -
If you ever raise your voice to me again, let alone your hand, I'll beat your brains out.
-
I beat my brains out doing it, but I'm glad I did it because it works really well.
Blog text (22) -
They continue to beat our brains out. Mr. Barnhart's legacy will forever be known for what he did do, failing to hire Petrino, to what he did, hiring Cal (after one big whiff).
Blog text (3) -
They were beating their brains out to figure out the solution before the deadline approached.
Synonyms
553
2.4
To hit someone or something with force
455
1.4
To hit someone or something quickly with a closed fist
271
4.1
To attack someone by hitting them again and again to hurt them
210
4.3
To make someone unconscious by a hit, illness, or being very tired
53
9.9
To hurt or defeat someone very badly, often by hitting them
45
9.0
To beat or punish someone very badly
23
8.8
To hit someone repeatedly with a heavy stick or club
19
7.7
To hit someone or something very hard many times
16
9.9
To hit someone hard on the head to seriously hurt them
16
8.0
To attack violently, upset someone deeply or criticize them strongly
15
7.6
Hit someone many times until they are badly hurt or win against them very clearly
13
7.5
Hit something hard so it breaks or opens
8
8.4
To physically attack and beat someone to punish or threaten them
7
6.5
Hit someone hard, often as punishment or in a fight
4
6.1
To hit someone or something hard with your head
3
3.7
Hit someone or something very hard
1
9.0
Hit someone many times until they are badly hurt
1
8.6
To hit someone or something very hard and damage it
1
9.8
Hit someone in the face very hard to hurt them
Hit someone many times so they become badly hurt
To hit someone very hard or to shock someone very much
Hit someone very hard so they are knocked out
Hit a person's head very hard and cause serious injury
To hit someone's face very hard to hurt them
Antonyms
How Intense
Surface Forms
Morphology
beat + someone's + brain + out
The violent sense is largely derivable from the parts—'beat' (to hit) + 'brain' (organ) + 'out' (completely/removed)—so a B1 learner who knows the words would likely infer severe physical assault or a hyperbolic threat. However the extended, non-literal sense meaning 'to work or study extremely hard' is not predictable from the constituents, making the expression only partially transparent.
Etymology
Beat someone's brains out uses a very strong image: beat (to hit) and brains (the mind in the head), as if someone were hit so hard their 'brains' were badly injured. That's why it can be a real threat, 'to hit someone violently', and by exaggeration it is also used to mean 'to work or think very hard'.