brain drain

Coined by spokesmen for the Royal Society of London in the early 1950s to describe the outflow of scientists and technologists to the United States and Canada.

• enPR: brānʹ-drān

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brain drain (plural brain drains)

1. (idiomatic) The migration of educated or talented people from less economically advanced areas to more economically advanced areas, especially to large cities or more developed nations.

   Antonym: brain gain

   • 1955, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Proceedings, Issues 6-12, page 60:

     Fortunately, the often-discussed problem of "the brain drain" is not as serious in agriculture as in most other fields, particularly the "hard sciences."

   • 2023 October 4, Philip Haigh, “HS2's rising costs: government only has itself to blame”, in RAIL, number 993, page 53:

     Former HS2 Ltd chairman Sir David Higgins provided a timely reminder of why Britain needs HS2 in a letter to The Times on September 25, in which he asked: "Why are so few FTSE 100 companies based outside the South East? Why is there such a brain drain of graduates from the North? Why do northern cities underperform compared with their European counterparts?

2. (medicine, informal) A Jackson-Pratt drain.

• reverse brain drain

brain drain (third-person singular simple present brain drains, present participle brain draining, simple past and past participle brain drained)

1. (transitive, idiomatic, uncommon) Of a nation or society, to be deprived of educated or talented people, who in turn migrate to larger cities or more developed nations.
2. (intransitive, idiomatic, uncommon) To become mentally or psychologically fatigued or exhausted.

• brain-drain

Unadapted borrowing from English brain drain.

brain drain n (uncountable)

1. brain drain