softening of the brain
Americannoun
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a softening of the cerebrum, caused by impairment of the blood supply; encephalomalacia.
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Informal. dementia associated with general paresis.
noun
Etymology
Origin of softening of the brain
First recorded in 1825–35
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
All had softening of the brain, all were paralytic.
From Time Magazine Archive
The death rate is 89.4 per 100,000, substantially that of nephritis, 90.1, and cerebral hemorrhage and softening of the brain, 90.4; all diseases of middle and advanced age.
From Time Magazine Archive
He dutifully went under canvas with his pugnacious battalion, but he was pretty much of a failure, declined into rose pruning, and died after a sad "softening of the brain."
From Time Magazine Archive
I can account for these statements, for these arguments, only as the reverend gentleman has accounted for the sins of Solomon—"by a softening of the brain, or a fatty degeneration of the heart."
From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 7 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Discussions by Ingersoll, Robert Green
Have you heard that Oliphant has been dangerously ill, at N. York?—a menace of softening of the brain having declared itself, and of course such a malady is never a mere threat.
From Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters, Vol. II by Downey, Edmund
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
