brain drain

Spokesmen for the Royal Society of London first coined this expression to describe the outflow of scientists and technologists to the United States and Canada in the early 1950s.

• enPR: brānʹ-drān

brain drain (plural brain drains)

1. The migration of educated or talented people from less economically advanced areas to more economically advanced areas, especially to large cities or richer countries.

   Antonym: brain gain

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

• reverse brain drain