Head & Mind Idioms

a head
- for one person, for one individual (used for counting people or some animals like cattle)
"The tickets were only a few dollars a head."

able to (do something) standing on one's head
- to be able to do something very easily and quickly
The man is able to do his job standing on his head.

absent-minded
- to be forgetful
Our neighbor is very absent-minded and he often forgets his keys.

all in (someone's) mind
- to imagine a situation or problem that does not actually exist
The problem that my aunt has with her neighbor is all in her mind. It does not exist.

as bald as a baby's backside
- completely bald
The man who works in the post office is as bald as a baby's backside.

as bald as a coot
- completely bald
The man in the store was as bald as a coot.

at one's wit's end
- to be in a worrying or stressful situation where you have no idea about what to do next
I was at my wit's end about what to do for my sister's wedding.

bad hair day
- a day when everything seems to go wrong (just like when you cannot make your hair look attractive)
Yesterday was a bad hair day and everything went wrong for me.

bang/beat one`s head against a (brick) wall
- to not succeed at something after trying very hard, to waste one's time trying to do something that is hopeless
I am beating my head against the wall trying to understand what my boss wants.

bear (someone or something) in mind
- to remember and think about someone or something
"Please keep the starting time for the concert in mind so that we can arrive early."

beat one`s brains out
- to tire oneself by thinking too much
I have been beating my brains out all day trying to remember where I put my notebook.

beat (something) into (someone`s) head
- to force someone to learn something by repeating it over and over
The teacher tried to beat the material into the student's head.

bite (someone's) head off
- to speak to someone in an angry way
I went to speak with my supervisor but she bit my head off.

black out
- to faint or pass out
The man suddenly blacked out while he was waiting for the bus.

blow one's stack/top
- to become very angry
My father will blow his top if he learns that I failed my course.

blow (someone`s) mind
- to overwhelm or excite someone
My friend told me that the new book would blow my mind.

blow up in (someone`s) face
- to end abruptly/unexpectedly, to be ruined while you are working on it, to explode suddenly in front of you
The plan to have a party for our boss blew up in our face when he decided not to come.

blue in the face
- to be very angry or upset, to be excited and emotional
The man argued with the supervisor until he was blue in the face.

boggle one's mind
- to confuse someone, to overwhelm someone, to be hard to imagine
It boggles my mind to think how quickly the Internet has changed people's lives.

bonehead
- an unusually dense or stupid person
The boy is a bonehead. He never understands what other people are trying to tell him.

bored out of one's mind/skull
- to be very bored
The little boy was bored out of his mind and wanted to return home.

brain drain
- the loss of talented and educated people from one place/country to other places/countries where conditions are better
There is a brain drain from many poor countries to wealthy countries where conditions are better.

brain (someone)
- to strike a person on the head
The spectator was brained in the middle of the match with a tennis ball.

brain teaser
- a problem for which it is hard to find the answer
My father likes to look in the newspaper for interesting brain teasers.

brains behind (something)
- the person/people who thought of and developed a successful plan/system/organization
The president of our company is the brains behind the plans to develop the new audio product.

brainchild
- an idea that one has thought of without any help from others
The idea for building the new swimming pool was the brainchild of our boss.

brainless
- to be stupid
The woman is brainless and she has no idea what she is doing.

brainstorm (something)
- to try to develop an idea
The club members gathered to try and brainstorm some ideas for a spring festival.

brainwash (someone)
- to make someone believe something that is not true by repeating it again and again
The people were brainwashed into thinking exactly what their leader wanted them to think.

bring (something) to a head
- to cause a situation with problems to reach the point where something must be done to solve/deal with the problems
The union brought the issue of working hours to a head when they threatened to go on strike.

bury one's head in the sand
- to ignore a problem or hide from some obvious danger, to refuse to see or face something
My uncle buried his head in the sand and tried not to talk about the problem.

butt heads with (someone)
- to argue with someone about a particular subject/problem
I do not want to butt heads with the manager of our department.

by a hair's breadth
- just barely, by a very small distance
I got to the concert in time to see the beginning but only by a hair's breadth.

by a whisker
- just barely, by a very small distance
I won the race by a whisker.

by the sweat of one`s brow
- by hard work
The man built up his business by the sweat of his brow.

change (someone's) mind
- to cause a person to think differently about something
I tried hard to change my friend's mind about going on a holiday with me.

cheek by jowl
- side by side, close together
The boxes were placed in the room cheek by jowl and nothing else could fit in.

collect one's wits
- to make an effort to control one's thoughts and feelings after something shocking or unexpected happens
I stopped at a small coffee shop after the job interview in order to collect my wits.

come face to face with (someone or something)
- to meet someone or something in person, to deal with someone immediately
I was walking through the forest when I came face to face with a black bear.

come to mind
- to enter into one's consciousness (used for an idea)
It came to mind last night that I had only two more weeks to work before my holiday.

come to one's senses
- to wake up, to begin to think clearly
The man came to his senses and finally stopped spending his money as soon as he receives it.

commit (something) to memory
- to memorize something
The new manager was able to quickly commit the names of his staff to memory.

count heads
- to count people
The teacher always counts heads in the morning.

crack a smile
- to smile a little
I tried not to crack a smile during the speech.

cross (someone`s) mind
- to be a sudden or passing thought, to occur to someone (an idea)
It suddenly crossed my mind that the store would be closed all day on Monday.
curl (someone`s) hair
- to shock/frighten/horrify someone
The movie is very realistic and many of the scenes will curl your hair.

drum (something) into (someone's) head
- to keep telling someone something until they cannot forget it
The teacher worked hard to drum the mathematics material into the heads of the students.

enter (someone's) mind
- to come into someone's mind (used for an idea or thought)
It never entered my mind that my friend would leave his job.

exercise one's brain
- to exercise one's intelligence
I always do puzzles in order to exercise my brain.

face-to-face
- in person, in the same location
The soccer star had a face-to-face meeting with his new team yesterday.

fall flat on one's face
- to be completely unsuccessful
I fell flat on my face when I tried to make a speech at the wedding.

fall head over heels
- to fall down (and maybe roll over)
The little boy fell head over heels down the hill.

fall head over heels in love with (someone)
- to fall deeply in love with someone
The girl fell head over heels in love with the boy on the basketball team.

feed one's face
- to eat
I stopped at a small restaurant to feed my face.

fly in the face of (something)
- to ignore something
The explanation by the criminal flies in the face of any common sense that someone would have.

from head to toe
- from the top of one's head to one's feet
The woman was dressed in her best clothes from head to toe.

get a head start
- to get an advantage when you start doing something or going somewhere
We woke up early in the morning in order to get a head start on our holiday.

get a load off one's mind
- to talk about what is troubling you
I wanted to get a load off my mind so I passed the evening talking with a friend.

get gray hair
- to have your hair turn gray because of stress
The father said that he was getting gray hairs from his son.

get in (someone's) hair
- to bother or irritate someone
The little boy often gets in his mother's hair.

get into (someone's) head
- to understand what someone thinks and feels so that you can communicate well with them
I am having a difficult time to get into the principal's head and understand what he is really doing.

get it into one's head to (do something)
- to decide to do something even though there may not be a good reason to do it
The girl got it into her head to learn to swim this winter.

get out of (someone's) face
- to go away or leave someone
I wish that my friend would get out of my face.

get (someone) out of one's hair
- to stop someone from annoying or bothering you
The woman tried hard to get the little boy out of her hair.

get (someone or something) out of one's head/mind
- to stop thinking about or wanting someone or something, to forget someone or something
My friend is trying hard to get his former girlfriend out of his mind.

get (something) into/through (someone`s) head
- to make someone understand or believe something
It was difficult to get it through the bank manager's head that I did not want a credit card.

get (something) through (someone's) thick skull
- to manage to get someone (including oneself) to understand something
The salesman cannot get it through his thick skull that I do not want to talk to him.

give (someone) a piece of one`s mind
- to scold someone angrily, to say what one really thinks of someone (especially when they have behaved badly)
I gave the store manager a piece of my mind when I told him about the bad product.

give (someone) a swelled head
- to make someone conceited
The girl's high test scores are giving her a swelled head.

go head to head with (someone)
- to compete in a direct and determined way with another person or group
We plan to go head to head with the other team in order to win the city championship.

go over (someone's) head
- to be too difficult for someone to understand
The reasons for the decision went over my head. I could not understand why.

go to one's head
- to make one dizzy
The drink quickly went to the man's head and he had to sit down and rest.

go to (someone`s) head
- to make someone too proud, to make a person think that he or she is too important
The man's new job has gone to his head and he thinks that he is better than everyone else.

gray matter
- brains, intelligence
The young man seems to be lacking in gray matter.

great minds think alike
- someone has the same idea or says the same thing as you do and at the same time
Great minds think alike and just as I suggested that we go to a movie, my friend suggested the same thing.

hang by a hair/thread
- to be in an uncertain position and depend on something not substantial
The results of the election are still undecided and are hanging by a hair.

hanging over (someone's) head
- to be worrying someone and be something that you will eventually have to deal with
The court case has been hanging over my friend's head for many months.

have a big head
- to think that you are better than everyone else, to be conceited
My friend has a big head now that he has won the speech contest at university.

have a brainstorm
- to suddenly have a very good idea
I had a brainstorm last night and I now have some very good ideas for next year's party.

have a brainwave
- to have a sudden clever idea
Last night I had a brainwave and had some great ideas about what to do at my job.

have a clean/clear conscience (about someone or something)
- to be free of guilt about someone or something
I have a clear conscience about what happened to my father's car in the accident.

have a closed mind (about something)
- to be unwilling to change one's ideas or opinions about something
My aunt has a closed mind and she is not flexible about most things.

have a good head for (something)
- to have the mental ability for something, to find it easy to learn something
My uncle has a good head for numbers.

have a good head on one's shoulders
- to be sensible and intelligent
The supermarket manager has a good head on his shoulders and he should be able to solve the problem.

have a good mind to (do something)
- to be tempted to do something, to be almost ready to do something
I have a good mind to go and tell my boss that I am planning to look for another job.