  We discuss a scenario in which brown dwarfs are formed like stars, except
that their full collapse phases are interrupted through dynamical interactions
in small multiple systems, leading to the ejection of the lightest member. This
disintegration is a stochastic process, often resulting in the expulsion of
newborn low mass stars, but when it occurs early enough the ejected stellar
embryo will be a substellar object. This process may be so common at early ages
that a large fraction of the ubiquitous brown dwarfs could have formed in this
manner. Detailed gas dynamical simulations are required in order to better
understand the details of the decay of small newborn multiple systems. We
discuss the observational consequences of the ejection hypothesis, noting
especially the importance of binaries with brown dwarf components as an
observational test. Finally, we note that brown dwarfs that have recently been
ejected may be so disturbed, by infall from the collapsing core and also by
heavy accretion from perturbed circumstellar disks, that traditional spectral
and luminosity criteria may fail to identify their substellar nature.
