brain truster

noun

1. a member of a brain trust; an important but usually unofficial adviser.

Word History and Origins

Origin of brain truster¹

First recorded in 1930–35; brain trust + -er ¹

Example Sentences

“Whatever the economic system does permit, it is not individualism,” FDR brain truster Adolf A. Berle had written during the 1932 presidential campaign, “... When nearly seventy per cent of American industry is concentrated in the hands of six hundred corporations, ... the individual man or woman has, in cold statistics, less than no chance at all. ... What Mr. Hoover means by individualism is letting economic units do about what they please.”

From Los Angeles Times

Brain Truster Tommy Corcoran, whose boss was among those captivated by the Johnson treatment.

From Time Magazine Archive

For once a group of Congressmen found themselves in agreement with a Brain Truster.

From Time Magazine Archive

George N. Peek, who got out of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration because he felt that the U. S. farmer would be the loser by Brain Truster Tugwell's plans for restricting production, was brought back into the Administration fold on his own terms.

From Time Magazine Archive

Second oldest is Adolf Jr. who entered Harvard at 13. took two degrees before he was 18, graduated from law school at 21, taught law at Columbia University, became a Roosevelt Brain Truster and is today, at 39, Chamberlain of the City of New York.

From Time Magazine Archive