Citations:brainworm

Noun: "(figuratively, informal) a song or melody that keeps playing inside of one's mind"

 * 2008, Mike Redmond, "Astley Brainworm", Current in Carmel, 1 July 2008, page 28:
 * Which points out the difference between this song and other brainworms.
 * 2009, Bill & Rich Sones, "Can't get rid of that tune? Maybe it's a brainworm", Woolwich Observer, 5 September 2009, page 30:
 * Although brainworms are no doubt ancient, the term has come into common use only in the last few decades, probably because suddenly music is ubiquitous,
 * 2016, Lawrence Kramer, "Caliban's Ear: A Short History of Ambient Music", Ubiquitous Musics: The Everyday Sounds That We Don't Always Notice (eds. Anahid Kassabian, Elena Boschi, Marta García Quiñones), page 15:
 * The hallucinations in question are exaggerated forms of 'brainworms ' – music stuck in the head.
 * 2020, Emily Merson, The Art of Global Power: Artwork and Popular Cultures as World-Making Practices, unnumbered page:
 * Constructed as a tone poem, Megaphone Choir refuses brainworms, pop hooks, catchy choruses, anthemic epiphanies - indeed, it refuses melody itself, instead insisting on the subversive and haunting power of noise itself.
 * 2021, Fern Michaels, Hidden, page 237:
 * They call them earworms, brainworms, sticky music.

Noun: "(figuratively, informal, sometimes derogatory) a persistent delusion or obsession; a deeply-ingrained or unquestioned idea"

 * 2019, Dale Beran, It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump Into Office, unnumbered page:
 * A new culture composed of the sloughed-off psychic brainworms of catchphrases, old advertising slogans, and bits of media was bubbling out of 4chan.
 * 2019, Sean Burke, "Ditch liberalism: Let's give socialism a chance", The Student Life (Claremont College), 22 February 2019, page 7:
 * Venezuela's market-based economy looks nothing like the centrally-planned Maoist regime that Sean Hannity's brainworms tell him it is.
 * 2020, Jake Dean, "mum + dad words", Kiddo, December 2020 - February 2021, page 31:
 * It probably won't be a permanent thing, and I haven't detached completely (I still use the accounts occasionally for work and stuff), but I've already found my mood has improved and the time I've spent having fun with my kid, reading, keeping fit, etc. has increased markedly as my screen time (and my brain worms) have dwindled.
 * 2021, Sam Allard, "Cleveland to Give Rocket Mortgage Another Handout, Economic Development Brain Worm Thrives", Scene, 10 February 2021 - 23 February 2021, page 6:
 * But Cleveland's leaders are unable to dislodge the economic development brain worms living rent-free in their heads.
 * 2021, "DP Angels", "The DP Angels answer pressing questions about ketamine, WilCaf, and women's bodies", The Daily Pennsylvanian (University of Pennsylvania), 1 April 2021, page 5:
 * While recreating this memory isn't possible right now, here are a few things to make those brain worms say, "Am I ugly, or do I just have a a bad personality?"
 * 2021, Stephanie Shih, quoted in "An Interview with Stephanie Shih", Form (Duke University), Volume 25 (2021), page 117:
 * I think institutional success would be nice because I have the capitalist brain worms that we all have.
 * 2021, Daniel Hill, "The Big Mad", Riverfront Times, 18 August 2021 - 24 August 2021, page 13 (bolding in original, green added to indicate use):
 * The pretzel logic of Governor Mike Parson's COVID-19 response has twist around to bite him on the ankles – and while he has only himself to blame, the GOP blowback from Parsons August 11 press conference, where he simply implied that health risks differ between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, is a prime example of what happens when Republican brain worms are running the show.
 * 2021, Wedding Trader, September/October 2021, page 12:
 * And I don’t mind betting that the majority of those of us who work in the bridal retailing industry have been experiencing the same brain worms, during many a sleepless night.