WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
n. surgical interruption of nerve tracts to and from the frontal lobe of the brain; often results in marked cognitive and personality changes
Word Usage
"Professor Valenstein deals particularly with the mutilating brain operation known as a leucotomy — or, in the US, lobotomy — which was performed on tens of thousands of people before its decline in popularity during the 1950s."