→ Please look at categories 45 to 47 to see if the expression you are looking for is shown under another headword.
1 N‑COUNT [with poss] You refer to someone's mind when talking about their thoughts. For example, if you say that something is in your mind , you mean that you are thinking about it, and if you say that something is at the back of your mind , you mean that you are aware of it, although you are not thinking about it very much. □ I'm trying to clear my mind of all this. □ There was no doubt in his mind that the man was serious. □ I put what happened during that game to the back of my mind. □ He spent the next hour going over the trial in his mind.
2 N‑COUNT Your mind is your ability to think and reason. □ You have a good mind. □ Studying stretched my mind and got me thinking about things.
3 N‑COUNT [usu sing] If you have a particular type of mind , you have a particular way of thinking which is part of your character, or a result of your education or professional training. □ Andrew, you have a very suspicious mind. □ The key to his success is his logical mind. □ …an American writer who has researched the criminal mind.
4 N‑COUNT You can refer to someone as a particular kind of mind as a way of saying that they are clever, intelligent, or imaginative. □ She moved to London, meeting some of the best minds of her time.
5 → see also minded , -minded , frame of mind , state of mind
6 PHRASE If you tell someone to bear something in mind or to keep something in mind , you are reminding or warning them about something important which they should remember. □ Bear in mind that petrol stations are scarce in the more remote areas. □ I should not be surprised about some of her comments, bearing in mind the party she belongs to.
7 PHRASE If something brings another thing to mind or calls another thing to mind , it makes you think of that other thing, usually because it is similar in some way. □ That brings to mind a wonderful poem by Riokin.
8 PHRASE If you cast your mind back to a time in the past, you think about what happened then. □ Cast your mind back to the year the team won the title.
9 PHRASE If you close your mind to something, you deliberately do not think about it or pay attention to it. □ She has closed her mind to last year's traumas.
10 PHRASE If you change your mind , or if someone or something changes your mind , you change a decision you have made or an opinion that you had. □ I was going to vote for him, but I changed my mind. □ It would be impossible to change his mind.
11 PHRASE If something comes to mind or springs to mind , you think of it without making any effort. □ Integrity and honesty are words that spring to mind when talking of the man.
12 PHRASE If you say that an idea or possibility never crossed your mind , you mean that you did not think of it. □ It had never crossed his mind that there might be a problem.
13 PHRASE If you see something in your mind's eye , you imagine it and have a clear picture of it in your mind. □ In his mind's eye, he can imagine the effect he's having.
14 PHRASE If you have a mind to do something, you want, intend, or choose to do it. □ The captain of the guard looked as if he had a mind to challenge them.
15 PHRASE If you say that you have a good mind to do something or have half a mind to do it, you are threatening or announcing that you have a strong desire to do it, although you probably will not do it. □ He raged on about how he had a good mind to resign.
16 PHRASE If you ask someone what they have in mind , you want to know in more detail about an idea or wish they have. □ 'Maybe we could celebrate tonight.'—'What did you have in mind?'
17 PHRASE If you have it in mind to do something, you intend or want to do it. □ Collins Harvill had it in mind to publish a short volume about Pasternak.
18 PHRASE If you do something with a particular thing in mind , you do it with that thing as your aim or as the reason or basis for your action. □ These families need support. With this in mind, a group of 35 specialists met last weekend.
19 PHRASE If you say that something such as an illness is all in the mind , you mean that it relates to someone's feelings or attitude, rather than having any physical cause. □ It could be a virus, or it could be all in the mind.
20 PHRASE If you know your own mind , you are sure about your opinions, and are not easily influenced by other people.
21 PHRASE If you say that someone is losing their mind , you mean that they are becoming mad. □ Sometimes I feel I'm losing my mind.
22 PHRASE If you make up your mind or make your mind up , you decide which of a number of possible things you will have or do. □ Once he made up his mind to do something, there was no stopping him. □ She said her mind was made up.
23 PHRASE You can use the expression mind over matter to describe situations in which a person seems to be able to control events, physical objects, or the condition of their own body using their mind. □ Good health is simply a case of mind over matter.
24 PHRASE If a number of people are of one mind , of like mind , or of the same mind , they all agree about something. □ Contact with other disabled yachtsmen of like mind would be helpful. □ The food companies are not of one mind about these new regulations.
25 PHRASE If you say that something that happens is a load off your mind or a weight off your mind , you mean that it causes you to stop worrying, for example because it solves a problem that you had.