Other forms: brainwashed, brainwashing, brainwashes
To brainwash is to force somebody to abandon their beliefs by pressure. Brainwash the prisoners, brainwashed into believing, a brainwashing cult.
The word is a direct translation of a Chinese phrase and entered English through American reporting on the Korean War. It is now used loosely of advertising and of any belief the speaker finds hard to credit.
1verbbrainwashTo force somebody to abandon their beliefs by pressure.
“The dictator used schools and television to brainwash the young.”
brainwash is a forcing.
A translation of a Chinese phrase meaning to wash the brain, taken up by the American press during the Korean War.
Chinese
洗腦
English, today
brainwash
From brain + wash, a Chinese 洗腦, literally to wash the brain. Usage via U.S. military during the Korean War.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA