brainy
part of speech
adjective (brainy, brainier, brainiest)
meaning for a pupil
1) (informal) Very clever and good at thinking and learning. tree →
2) (informal) Smart in a bookish way. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday talk «brainy» is a friendly or teasing way to say clever; a «brainbox» (UK) or «brainiac» (US) is a very brainy person. In stories the brainy friend often solves the puzzle. Some children feel teased when called brainy, so use it kindly.
examples
- My sister is really brainy at maths. tree →
- The brainy kid in the film builds a robot. tree →
- You don't have to be brainy to be kind. tree →
- She's the brainiest girl in our class. tree →
- Owls are thought of as brainy birds in stories. tree →
- Ask Tom, he's brainy about dinosaurs. tree →
note
Informal. Comparisons: brainier, brainiest (y changes to i). Myth: owls are not actually cleverer than other birds. Synonyms: clever, smart, bright.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «brainy» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.