Dictionary

brainpan en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈbɹeɪnpan/ (UK)

Etymology

From Middle English brayn panne, from Old English bræġnpanne, corresponding to brain + pan.

Meanings

1. (Canada, US, colloquial) The braincase; the skull.
   • Fee, fi, fo, fum, / I smell the blood of a Christian man, / Be he dead, be he living, with my brand, / I’ll dash his brains from his brain-pan. 1890, Joseph Jacobs, “Childe Rowland”, in English Fairy Tales, page 123:
   • Yet, whether thwart or flatly it did lyte, / The tempred steele did not into his braynepan byte. 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
   • Many a time but for a Sallet, my braine-pan had bene cleft with a brown Bill. 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ix]:
2. (Canada, US, colloquial) The brain or mind.
   • ‘And a hard word it is,’ said Richie, ‘as my brainpan kens to this blessed moment.’ 1822, Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel:

Forms

Synonyms

skull · harnpan