brain wave
Usually brain waves .Medicine/Medical. an electrical impulse given off by brain tissue, occurring at a frequency that varies according to mental state or activity, such as the slow waves associated with deep sleep and the fast waves associated with actively engaged thoughts and speech.: Compare alpha rhythm, beta rhythm, delta rhythm.
Informal. a sudden idea or inspiration; brainstorm.
Origin of brain wave
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use brain wave in a sentence
Casey Schwartz on the "alpha" brain wave wreaking havoc on your sleep.
Which must have been entirely brain-wave or thought-reading, as Rosalind had said never a word of her anxiety, so far.
Somehow Good | William de MorganFinally as the result of a brain-wave he had requisitioned the local boy scouts.
Mrs. Bindle | Hebert JenkinsHe just loosed another dry Martini into the undergrowth, and before you could turn round it had flushed quite a brain-wave.
My Man Jeeves | P. G. WodehouseThat vision had been a brain-wave between their two linked and sympathetic brains.
Boon, The Mind of the Race, The Wild Asses of the Devil, and The Last Trump; | Herbert George Wells
It smelled the outpouring of certain glands, tasted a deviant brain wave.
Watchbird | Robert Sheckley
British Dictionary definitions for brainwave (1 of 2)
/ (ˈbreɪnˌweɪv) /
informal a sudden inspiration or idea: Also called: brainstorm
British Dictionary definitions for brain wave (2 of 2)
any of the fluctuations of electrical potential in the brain as represented on an electroencephalogram. They vary in frequency from 1 to 30 hertz: See also alpha rhythm, beta rhythm, delta rhythm
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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