crackbrain n.
1. a fool.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Glossographia n.p.: Phanatick..that hath vain visions; Also as Fanatick; a crack-brain, one deluded with fond apprehensions. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Wild Oats (1792) 38: Oh such a merry, civil crazy crackbrain. | |
| (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 316: Her characters were, crack-brain for this, impertinent fellow for that. | |
| Handy Andy 306: The most ordinary crack-brain sometimes chooses to sport in the regions of sanity. | |
| Goethe: a New Pantomime in Poetical Works 2 (1878) 335: Reptile, Squabbler, Puppy, Sneak, / Blabberlip, Wasp, Crackbrain, Buffer. | |
| Durham Co. Advertiser 24 Feb. 5/1: The Duke of Wellington was an old crack-brain. | |
| Western Gaz. 29 Nov. 4/6: The following characters were introduced: Artemus Addlepate [...] Cornelius Crackbrain. | |
| Huddersfield Chron. 27 June 5/2: He had been escorted to Queenstown by his fellow crackbrain, George F. Train. | |
| Portsmouth Eve. News 5 Oct. 2/5: I suppose he must be a credit to the corps as a crackbrain — beg pardon — shot I mean, by the clever way he has gone wide of the mark. | |
| Western Times 21 Apr. 5/6: The pubklic are saved from the risk of some crack-brain becoming excited. | |
| Blackburn Standard 3 Feb. 7/1: What is chiefly wanted is an increase in our [...] inventors, and this can be done if we only give them encouragement and not look down upon a fellow subject as a crack-brain. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | (con. 1930s) Lawd Today 62: If you talk to a crackbrain two minutes he’ll start slobbering about Roosia! |
2. in attrib. use of sense 1.
| Morn. Post (London) 6 Oct. 3/1: The Journal du Havre, in a sensible article on the crack-brain politics of the capital [etc.]. | |
| Southern Star (London) 16 Feb. 7/1: No sooner did Rowland Hill write his crack-brain pamphlet, then they forgot [...] . | |
| Leicester Chron. 8 May 8/2: The crackbrain individual calling himself ‘Baron de Gamin’ [...] delivered [...] another of his rabid lectures. | |
| Western Times 20 Sept. 5/6: The man was a crack-brain vicionary. | |
| Western Times 22 May 5/5: This prosecutor was the grandfather of the crack-brain attorney who opposed Mr Disraeli. | |
| Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 13 Jan. 11/1: Yule orwiz vind a passel o’ vules raddy to du any crackbrain thing. | |
| Cheltenham Chron. 12 Feb. 3/1: Mr Mequham expressed the opinion that it was ‘a crack-brain thing that will land local authorities in no end of difficulty’. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Dundee Courier 31 Jan. 4: Why didn’t you ask me first, instead of agreeing with this crackbrain suggestion? | |
| Western Morn. News 1 July 4/8: If you can imagine a more crack-brain idea, I cannot. |
In derivatives
foolish, stupid; thus crack-brainedness, foolishness, stupidity.
 | (trans.) Erasmus Witt against Wisdom (1509) 148: [A] man is censured at least for being maggoty, and crack-braind. | |
| Tongue Combatants 7: Censorious Crack-brained Coxcomb. | |
| Caledonian Mercury 1 July 1/1: This Piece is generally supposed to be written by some Crack-brain’d Malcontent. | |
| New London Spy 51: The employments of the crack brained inhabitants [of Bedlam]. | |
| Thraliana ii 14 Mar. 995: ‘Ah Madam! (says the Crackbrain'd Writer of these Lines—)—How is our poor King surrounded by Sycophants—’. | |
| Liverpool Daily Post 26 Dec. 6/5: He dissented from the policy which his Sovereign saw fit to embark on on the occasion of Garibaldi’s crack-brained enterprise. | |
| John o’Groat Jrnl 12 May 4/3: This ‘crack-brain,’ who inherits the ‘crackbrainedness’ from some venerable ancestors [...] threw the first clod. | |
| Aberden Eve. News 4 Sept. 4/4: ‘The sap-head, the shallow pate, the crazy, crack-brained imbecile’. | |
| Sporting Times 13 Feb. 5/4: You blooming, crack-brained, owl-eyed hermit. | |
| On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 327: You always been a crackbrained sonofabitch anyhow. | |
| Little History of US 134: No doubt some of these reforming ideas seemed impractical or even crack-brained. |