Head & Mind Idioms

on one's mind
- occupying one's thoughts, currently being thought about
Recently I have had many things on my mind.

on/upon (someone`s) head
- on one's own self
The little boy brought the anger of his parent's upon his head.

on the face of it
- on the surface of an issue or a problem
On the face of it, it is very easy to see who caused the problem with our schedules.

out of one`s hair
- to get rid of an annoying person or thing
My sister is trying to get her daughter out of her hair.

out of one's mind/head/senses
- to be crazy/irrational/silly
The woman is out of her mind and she is always doing something crazy.

out of sight, out of mind.
- if you do not see something then you will not think about it
The chocolates were out of sight, out of mind and nobody thought about them.

out of the mouths of babes
- something that a child says shows that they understand more about a situation than you thought that they did
The statement was right out of the mouths of babes. The little boy knew everything that was going on.

over one`s head
- to be/go beyond one's ability to understand, to be too difficult
The mathematics lectures went over my head during the first few weeks.

pass through (someone's) mind
- to occur to someone, to think about something briefly
The idea passed through my mind briefly but then it was gone.

pay (someone or something) no mind
- to ignore someone or something
I was told by the policeman to pay the traffic lights no mind while the accident was being cleaned up.

per head
- for one person, for one individual (used for counting people or animals like cattle)
The tickets cost only a small amount of money per head.

pick the brains of (someone)
- to talk to someone in order to get some information about something
We picked the brains of the official who was sent to talk about the pollution problem.

pit one's wits against (someone)
- to challenge someone over something to see who wins
The best students in our school decided to pit their wits against the best students in the city.

pull one's hair out
- to be angry/upset/worried about something
My friend began to pull her hair out when she discovered that she had no nice clothes for the party.

put hair on one's chest
- to be good for someone (something that you eat or drink)
I told my friend that vegetable juice will put hair on his chest.

put ideas into (someone's) head
- to suggest something to someone
The girl's best friend is always putting ideas into her head.

put on a brave face
- to try to appear happy or satisified even though you are faced with serious problems
The man put on a brave face after he was fired from his job.

put one's face on
- to put make-up on one's face
The woman spent a long time putting her face on.

put one's head in a noose
- to say or do something that could harm you or your image
The man put his head in a noose when he became angry and criticized his boss at the meeting.

put one's head in the lion's mouth
- to put oneself in a dangerous or difficult situation
I put my head in the lion's mouth when I went to the meeting with my boss.

put one's head on the block for (someone or something)
- to take great risks or to go to a lot of trouble for someone or something
I love my boss and I would be happy to put my head on the block for her.

put one's heads together
- to discuss/talk about something with someone or a group of people and try to solve a problem
We put our heads together with the other members of the department to try and find a solution to the problem.

put one's mind to (something)
- to give one's complete attention to something
I put my mind to making the party as successful as possible.

put (someone or something) out of one's head/mind
- to try to forget someone or something
I was forced to put my holidays out of my head when we had the emergency problems at our company.

rack one`s brain
- to try one's best to think about something, to make a great mental effort
I racked my brain for over an hour to try and decide what to do about the new computer.

raise a hand against (someone or something)
- to threaten to strike someone or something
The teacher never raises a hand against her students.

raise its (ugly) head
- a problem or bad situation appears or happens after not happening for a period of time
The problem between the two managers raised its ugly head again after many months of calm.

raise one's voice to (someone)
- to speak loudly or shout at someone in anger
The child was told not to raise his voice to his parents.

read (someone's) mind
- to guess what someone is thinking (as if one has special powers to see someone's thoughts)
The girl told her boyfriend that she cannot read his mind and that he must tell her what he wants.

rear its ugly head
- to appear after being hidden (usually something unpleasant)
The problem between the two sisters rears its ugly head at the beginning of every year.

red in the face
- embarrassed
The clerk was red in the face after she heard the comment by the customer.

save face
- to save one's good reputation or dignity when something has happened to hurt him or her
The government was unable to save face after they failed to deal with the crisis properly.

say (something) right to (someone's) face
- to say something unpleasant or important directly to someone
I said that the man was not telling the truth right to his face.

scratch one's head
- to be confused or perplexed
I was left scratching my head after the speech by our department manager.

scream one's head off
- to scream a lot and for a long time
The girl screamed her head off after the accident.

should have one's head examined
- to behave as if you are mentally ill or crazy
My sister is crazy to buy that car. She should have her head examined.

show one's face
- to appear
I do not think that my friend will show his face tonight.

shut one's face/trap
- to be quiet, to shut up
"Please sit down and shut your trap."

sixth sense
- the ability to know or feel things that are beyond the five basic senses of sight/hearing/smell/taste/touch
The woman has a sixth sense and she knows everything that is happening around her.

a slap in the face
- an insult
The terrible candidate who won the city election was a slap in the face to the voters.

slip one's mind
- to forget something
It slipped my mind that I need to phone my dentist soon.

slow-witted
- to be not very smart
The girl is slow-witted and she has trouble doing simple things.

speak one's mind
- to say frankly what one thinks about something
My father plans to speak his mind at the school meeting this evening.

split hairs
- to find and argue about small and unimportant differences
My boss always splits hairs when I talk to him about something important.

stand head and shoulders above (the rest/someone/something)
- to be much better than anyone or everything else in the same group
Our new principal stands head and shoulders above the one who we had before.

stand on one's head (to do something)
- to make a great effort to do something
I did everything but stand on my head to help my friend get a job.

stand (something) on its head
- to show that an idea or argument is wrong and means the opposite of what it first seemed to mean, to change the way that people think about something
We stood the argument on its head with our intelligent argument against it.

stare (someone) in the face
- to be very likely to happen, to be clear and easy to recognize
Defeat was staring the runner in the face right from the beginning of the race.

stick in (someone's) mind
- to not forget something
The date of my friend's wedding stuck in my mind for many years.

stick one's head in a noose
- to say or do something that could harm you or your image
I stuck my head in a noose when I mentioned that I wanted to find another job.

stuff one's face
- to eat a lot in a short time
I stuffed my face in the restaurant last night.

swelled head
- a feeling that one is very important or more important than one really is
My sister has had a swelled head since she got her new job.

take it into one's head to do (something)
- to decide to do something that does not seem sensible to others
The young woman took it into her head to go to China and she did.

take it on the chin
- to be badly beaten or hurt, to get into trouble
My friend took it on the chin when he fought with the man at the store.

take leave of one's senses
- to become irrational/crazy
I believe that the woman in the store is beginning to take leave of her senses.

take one's mind off (something)
- to stop from worrying or thinking about a problem
I went to a movie to take my mind off my problems at work.

take (something) at face value
- to accept something as the truth and with no hidden meaning
I was forced to take what my boss said at face value.

take (something) on the chin
- to experience and endure a blow or hardship
The man is able to take things on the chin and quickly move on with his life when he has a problem.

talk (someone's) head off
- to speak too much
The woman beside me in the bus talked my head off during our journey.

talk until one is blue in the face
- to talk until one is exhausted
I talked until I was blue in the face but my friend would still not change his mind.

tear one's hair out
- to be anxious/frustrated/angry
The mother was tearing her hair out as she waited for her daughter to return home.

tell (someone) to his or her face
- to tell something to someone directly
I told my friend to her face that I did not like her constant complaining.

thin on top
- bald or balding
My uncle is a little thin on top but he is very handsome.

throw (something) back in (someone's) face
- to use something that someone has said previously to harm or upset him or her
I immediately threw the question back in the lawyer's face.

to (someone's) mind
- in someone's opinion
"To my mind I believe that both opinions are valid."

tongue in cheek
- jokingly, insincerely, mockingly, not really meaning something
The remark was made tongue in cheek and the man did not mean it.

touched (in the head)
- to be crazy
My neighbor is touched in the head. He is really crazy.

trouble one's head about (someone or something)
- to worry about someone or something
"Please do not trouble your head about the arrangements for the party. I will do everything."

turn (someone's) head
- to distract someone, to make someone notice you
The woman's beautiful dress turned everybody's head. It was beautiful.

turn (something) on its head
- to show that an idea or argument is wrong and means the opposite of what it first seemed to mean, to change the way that people think about a subject
The lawyer was able to easily turn the argument on its head.

turn (something) over in one's mind
- to think about something continuously
I could not sleep last night because I was turning my situation at work over in my mind.

turn the other cheek
- to ignore someone's abuse or insult, to not hit back when someone hits you
The children were told that they should turn the other cheek when they were attacked by someone.

up to one's chin in (something)
- to be very busy with something, to be working hard at something, to have much/many of something
The woman is up to her chin in work and has no free time.

use one`s head/noggin/noodle
- to use one's brain or mind, to use one's own common sense
Sometimes I think that the manager of the video store never uses her head when I ask her a question.

wag one's chin
- to chat with someone
I stopped at the coffee shop to wag my chin with an old friend.

weigh on (someone's) mind
- to be in someone's thoughts, to be bothering someone
The decision about selling my car or not was weighing on my mind.

within a whisker of (doing something)
- almost do something
I came within a whisker of quitting my job but I decided to continue working there.

written all over (someone's) face
- to be shown clearly what someone is thinking/feeling or if they are guilty by the look on his or her face
The fact that the little boy took the cookies was written all over his face.