Definitions

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

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

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

  • noun (Med., Surgery) The surgical interruption of nerve tracts to and from the frontal lobe of the brain, by cutting into the brain.

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

  • noun A surgical operation on the frontal lobe of the brain intent on treating certain mental illnesses.
  • noun The severing of the prefrontal cortex from the thalamic region of the brain.
  • noun The severing of the sympathetic nerve trunk.

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

  • noun surgical interruption of nerve tracts to and from the frontal lobe of the brain; often results in marked cognitive and personality changes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[lobe + –tomy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek λοβός (lobos, "lobe (of the brain)") + τομή (tome, "cute, slice").

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Examples

Comments

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  • "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."

    --attributed to Tom Waits, I believe

    March 2, 2007

  • What? Tom Waits?? All this time I thought it was my dad. ;-)

    March 2, 2007

  • No, this song/saying is WAY older than Tom Waits. Although he did say it most pithily.

    March 2, 2007

  • Hey, my dad's older than Tom Waits! And he's pithy, too!

    March 2, 2007

  • Dorothy Parker, I believe.

    March 2, 2007

  • The "bottle in front of me" line is a classic example of chiasmus.

    June 3, 2007