Word.ws English Dictionary

brainwashed

brainwashed is the simple past and past participle of brainwash.

Meaning of brainwash

Verb

brainwash (third-person singular simple present brainwashes, present participle brainwashing, simple past and past participle brainwashed)

  1. (transitive) To affect one's mind by using extreme mental pressure or any other mind-affecting process. (e.g. hypnosis)
    • Toph can't tell who's lying becaue they both think they're telling the truth. Jet's been brainwashed!2006 November 3, Tim Hedrick, “Lake Laogai” (12:08 from the start), in Lauren MacMullan, director, Avatar: The Last Airbender, season 2 (Book Two: Earth), episode 17, spoken by Sokka (Jack DeSena)
  2. (dated, figuratively, transitive) To take from an electronically controlled machine its stored-up information; to erase a computer's programming. (1960)
  3. (transitive) To persuade completely and forcibly.
    • The news media brainwashed many people.

See all 4 meanings of brainwash

Words formed from brainwashed

Questions about brainwashed

What is brainwashed the simple past and past participle of?
Brainwashed is the simple past and past participle of brainwash.

Words near brainwashed in the dictionary

  1. braintrust
  2. braintrusts
  3. brainward
  4. brainwash
  5. brainwashable
  6. brainwashed
  7. brainwashedness
  8. brainwashee
  9. brainwashees
  10. brainwasher
  11. brainwashers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brainwashed (page history and authors); brainwash (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “brainwashed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brainwashed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.