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 orstupid - adjective of a person
frivolous andsilly ;featherbrained orscatterbrained
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective very foolish
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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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
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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
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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
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I know he -- talked all kind of harebrained, talk a lot of garbage, sometimes.
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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
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Manchester United manager has dismissed the idea of introducing play-offs to determine the final Champions League place as "harebrained".
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Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has slammed the "harebrained" idea of introducing play-offs to decide the final Champions League spot.
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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
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Manchester United manager has dismissed the idea of introducing play-offs to determine the final Champions League place as "harebrained".
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Manchester United manager has dismissed the idea of introducing play-offs to determine the final Champions League place as "harebrained".
sionnach commented on the word harebrained
not hairbrained
October 21, 2007
seanahan commented on the word harebrained
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