brainwash
or brain-wash, brain wash
[breyn-wosh, -wawsh]
- to cause (someone) to undergo brainwashing.
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- the process of brainwashing.
- a subjection to brainwashing.
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Origin of brainwash
First recorded in 1950–55; back formation from brainwashing
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words for brainwash
indoctrinate, educate, convert, influence, persuade, instill, catechize, proselytize, teach, convince, alter, conditionExamples from the Web for brainwash
Contemporary Examples of brainwash
Icons is the attempt of Mr. Brainwash, who represents himself, to storm New York.
Over time, he became a street artist himself: the splendidly named Mr. Brainwash.
A friend had heard that Mr. Brainwash had staked everything he had on this show.
Historical Examples of brainwash
This makes any attempts to brainwash the enlisted men impracticable and a great deal of pressure is thereby removed.
I Was a Teen-Age Secret WeaponRichard Sabia
brainwash
- (tr) to effect a radical change in the ideas and beliefs of (a person), esp by methods based on isolation, sleeplessness, hunger, extreme discomfort, pain, and the alternation of kindness and cruelty
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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
Word Origin and History for brainwash
1955 (past participle adjective brainwashed attested from 1953); see brainwashing.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper