Definition of "brain-work" [brain-work]

• Intellectual labor; cerebration. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "I wished the ending had been unpacked a bit, but I also know that MacLeod sometimes expects a bit of brain-work from his readers."
• "People come to work—not to sew clothing or to build locomotives, as they did in the past, but to do brain-work."
• "And in line with this fetish, I loveTV programmes that are so very cliched or an obvious and cynical attempt to draw on the success of another, similar project that they are little more than enjoyable pastiches, marrying the best qualities oftheir competitors and predecessors, but making sure no actual brain-work went into their formation."