brain dead
19
7.4
- adjective
- /breɪn dɛd/
- Specialized
:
muerte cerebral
- Doctors confirmed that the patient was brain dead after tests showed no brain activity.
- brain-dead donors
- brain-dead patients
- organs from brain-dead
But you know, I mean, they decided that my father was brain dead.
- But you know, I mean, they decided that my father was brain dead.
- We want to make sure that the patient is truly brain dead so that circumstances like this would never happen.
- And but because he'd stopped breathing for so long, obviously the oxygen to his brain, so he was actually still breathing, but he was brain dead.
- So can you set a time limit to how long a brain can be, quote brain dead before it gets reanimated?
- Because this is the reason the NHS is costing more and more and more again, the saving of lives of brain dead children.
Examples
-
Technically, he was brain dead by nightfall.
Fiction book (1992) -
For two years, he was brain dead.
Fiction book (1997) -
We want to make sure that the patient is truly brain dead so that circumstances like this would never happen.
-
That could leave them brain dead, but not die right away.
-
- When he was brought here, he was completely brain dead.
-
When do you declare a patient brain dead?
Academic text (2018) -
The clearest proof of this is found in decisions about providing life support to patients who are brain dead.
Academic text (1994) -
He's been brain-dead too long.
-
He was brain-dead but still breathing when his body was released.
-
He's brain dead.
Synonyms
1
7.9
Having no brain activity and being considered dead by doctors
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'brain not functioning / clinically dead' is directly compositional from 'brain' (the organ) + 'dead' (not alive/not functioning), so a learner who knows both words can infer that the brain has ceased to function. This adjective-noun composition is common cross-linguistically (e.g. Spanish 'muerte cerebral'), so it is readily understandable to B1 learners, although the precise clinical nuance of irreversibility may require specific medical knowledge.
Etymology
The term brain dead comes from medicine; it pictures the brain as completely stopped and the word dead as meaning no brain function, while machines may keep the body alive. So it means 'dead' in a medical way because the brain no longer works even if the heart still beats.