brain trust

¹

British, Brains Trust

noun

1. a group of experts from various fields who serve as unofficial consultants on matters of policy and strategy.

brain-trust

²

[breyn-truhst]

verb (used with object)

1. to serve as a brain trust or a brain truster for.

   They have brain-trusted many major corporations.

brain trust

¹

1. A group of experts who serve as advisers to a government or an organization: “Before being appointed to the cabinet, Brown had been a leading figure in a financial brain trust.”

brain trust

²

1. A group of intellectuals and planners who act as advisers, especially to a government. The phrase is particularly associated with the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Word History and Origins

Origin of brain trust¹

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10

Idioms and Phrases

A group of experts who serve as unofficial but vital advisers. For example, Each town manager seemed to have his or her own brain trust, which of course changed with every election. This term, closely associated with President Franklin Roosevelt's advisers on domestic and foreign policy in the early 1930s, was first recorded in 1910.

Example Sentences

Alcaraz was in constant conversation with the tennis brain trust in his coaching box, which includes former French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero.

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Four parents, one a newcomer still acclimating to the school’s strenuously progressive rules, are part of the executive brain trust.

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That way his brain trust could contemplate the Insurrection Act as a possible response to immigration, which would let him deploy the military to enforce laws on U.S. soil.

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Stafford, however, does not dig very deep, confident that the Rams’ brain trust will make the right picks.

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The GOP brain trust has accepted the claim that Social Security is rife with fraud without devoting a moment’s thought to it.

Read more on Los Angeles Times