noun

lobotomy

luh-BO-tuh-mee

noun

A now largely abandoned brain surgery that severs connections in the frontal lobe, once used to treat severe mental illness.

"The hospital performed lobotomies routinely in the 1950s before the practice fell out of favor."

Figuratively, the removal or numbing of a capacity for thought or feeling.

"Watching reality TV for hours felt like a lobotomy."

How to Use Lobotomy

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishA discredited brain operation once used to treat mental illness; loosely, anything that seems to switch off critical thinking.

When to use it

The figurative sense ("it felt like a lobotomy") is informal and often used humorously or critically.

lobotomies plural

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Watching reality TV for hours felt like a _____.

From lobe + -otomy, a suffix meaning "a cutting into", as in "tonsillotomy".

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