lobotomy

American  

[luh-bot-uh-mee, loh-] / ləˈbɒt ə mi, loʊ- /

noun

Surgery.

• lobotomies
  plural

1. the operation of cutting into a lobe, as of the brain or the lung.

2. prefrontal lobotomy.

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lobotomy British  

/ ləʊˈbɒtəmɪ /

noun

1. a surgical incision into a lobe of any organ

2. Also called: prefrontal leucotomy.  a surgical interruption of one or more nerve tracts in the frontal lobe of the brain: used in the treatment of intractable mental disorders

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lobotomy Scientific  

/ lə-bŏt′ə-mē /

1. Surgical incision into the frontal lobe of the brain to sever one or more nerve tracts, a technique formerly used to treat certain psychiatric disorders but now rarely performed.

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lobotomy Cultural  

1. A surgical incision into one or more of the nerve masses in the front of the brain. A lobotomy may be performed for the relief of certain mental disorders, although it has been largely abandoned in favor of less radical treatments.

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Discover More

Because people who have had a lobotomy often become quite passive after the operation, the term is often used to refer to someone who shows a lack of response or reaction: “She was so tired she just sat there as if she had been lobotomized.”

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• lobotomies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of lobotomy

C20: from _lobe + _-tomy

Explanation

A lobotomy is a surgical procedure that interrupts the nerves in the brain. Before the use of prescription drugs became wide-spread, a common treatment for severe mental illness was lobotomy. The lobotomy was invented in 1935 and used fairly regularly for about twenty years to treat psychosis and other mental illnesses. It was always controversial, and once effective anti-psychosis medications were developed, it fell out of use. Lobotomy results in a calmed, but also often mentally dull patient. The word itself comes from the word lobe, as in a part of brain, combined with tomy, a medical suffix that means "a cutting."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lobotomy lobotomies

But that would be like a frontal lobotomy and reduce us to happy animals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025

While most achievements are still celebrated, some awards have not aged well, such as Egas Moniz' 1949 prize in physiology or medicine for the since banned and discredited practice of lobotomy.

From Reuters ● Sep. 29, 2023

He quotes William Laurence, a science reporter for the New York Times, who, in 1937, celebrated lobotomy as a procedure that “cuts away the sick parts of the human personality.”

From Washington Post ● Jun. 3, 2022

No doctor in the U.S. has performed a transorbital lobotomy since — at least, so far as the medical record shows — but lobotomies in general continued into the 1970s.

From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2021

"Waiter, there's some liveware in my salad…" :lobotomy: n.

From The Jargon File, Version 2.9.10, 01 Jul 1992 by Eric S. Raymond

Freeman didn’t only perform lobotomies; he was the operation’s foremost advocate.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 14, 2023

No doctor in the U.S. has performed a transorbital lobotomy since — at least, so far as the medical record shows — but lobotomies in general continued into the 1970s.

From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2021

Grinker shows how a society’s needs and prejudices shape its approach to mental conditions, from the regrettable asylums and lobotomies of past centuries to the recent corporate trend of recruiting employees with autism.

From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2021

More than 20,000 lobotomies were performed in the UK between the early 1940s and the late '70s.

From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2021

Work is focused on individuals who are about to undergo partial lobotomies to treat intractable epilepsy.

From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin