brain-sick

A person with a brain-sick condition sits quietly in a garden.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Mentally disordered or insane: "brain-sick" describes a state of mental disturbance, where a person's mind is affected by illness, confusion, or irrationality. It is an archaic or literary term, not commonly used in modern English.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • The brain-sick king believed he was made of glass. (The mentally disturbed king suffered from a delusion.)
  • Her brain-sick ramblings worried the doctors. (Her confused, irrational speech caused concern.)

Advanced Usage

• "to be brain-sick with fever": to suffer from mental confusion caused by a high fever.

  • The patient grew brain-sick with fever and began to hallucinate. (The fever induced delirium and irrational thoughts.)

• "brain-sick fantasies": irrational or delusional ideas.

  • He entertained brain-sick fantasies of ruling the world. (He held unrealistic, insane ideas.)

Variants and Related Words

• Brain-sickness (n): the state of being mentally disturbed or insane.

  • The novel explores the theme of brain-sickness in a decaying society. (The story examines mental illness.)

• Brain (n): the organ of the mind; intelligence.

• Sick (adj): affected by physical or mental illness.

Synonyms

• Insane: in a state of mind that prevents normal perception, behaviour, or social interaction.
• Deranged: driven to madness; utterly confused or disordered.
• Lunatic: (archaic) mentally ill; wildly foolish.

Related Idioms

• Sick in the head: a modern informal phrase meaning mentally unstable or perverse.

  • That plan is just sick in the head — it makes no sense. (The idea is irrational or disturbed.)

• Out of one's mind: to be insane or extremely irrational.

  • He was out of his mind with grief. (He was temporarily insane due to sorrow.)