Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having or showing little sense; foolish.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having or indicating, as it were, no more brain than a hare; giddy; heedless; reckless; wild.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Wild; giddy; volatile; heedless.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of an idea or plan, etc. absurd, foolish or stupid
  • adjective of a person frivolous and silly; featherbrained or scatterbrained

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective very foolish

Etymologies

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Examples

  • A federal judge has denied what he called a "harebrained" motion by Rod Blagojevich's lawyers over what they claimed was potential misconduct by the jury forewoman at his retrial.

    NYT > Home Page By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 2011

  • At a hearing in federal court in Manhattan on Friday, Steven R. Kartagener , Mr. Sebbag's lawyer, described the scheme as "harebrained," "crazy" and "stupid."

    Man Sentenced to 27 Months in Disney Tips Case Chad Bray 2011

  • With the NYT as an object of "grassy-knoll" conspiracy theories, with bloggers feeding on "harebrained" speculation, pray tell why Bill Keller should be considered as any less credulous?

    William E. Jackson Jr.: Why Bill Keller Cannot 'Move On' From the Miller/Libby Scandal 2008

  • I know he -- talked all kind of harebrained, talk a lot of garbage, sometimes.

    CNN Transcript Jun 4, 2007 2007

  • Dick grinned to himself, imagining the Captain's face if he showed up in the office with that kind of harebrained proposal.

    Werehunter Lackey, Mercedes 1999

  • Manchester United manager has dismissed the idea of introducing play-offs to determine the final Champions League place as "harebrained".

    Evening Standard - Home 2010

  • Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has slammed the "harebrained" idea of introducing play-offs to decide the final Champions League spot.

    TEAMtalk Football News 2010

  • Sir Alex Ferguson feels the notion of a Premier League play-off system to allow clubs finishing outside the top four to compete for a Champions League place is "harebrained".

    ESPNsoccernet Soccernet staff 2010

  • Manchester United manager has dismissed the idea of introducing play-offs to determine the final Champions League place as "harebrained".

    Football.co.uk news feed 2010

  • Manchester United manager has dismissed the idea of introducing play-offs to determine the final Champions League place as "harebrained".

    Football.co.uk news feed 2010

Comments

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  • not hairbrained

    October 21, 2007

  • FYI, here is the usage note from AHD:

    "The first use of harebrained dates to 1548. The spelling hairbrained also has a long history, going back to the 1500s when hair was a variant spelling of hare. The hair variant was preserved in Scotland into the 18th century, and as a result it is impossible to tell exactly when people began writing hairbrained in the belief that the word means "having a hair-sized brain" rather than "with no more sense than a hare." While hairbrained continues to be used and confused, it should be avoided in favor of harebrained which has been established as the correct spelling."

    October 22, 2007