head over heels
17
3.4
- idiom
- Informal
:
perdidamente enamorado
- So people will hear me and never guess that I'm head over heels in love with you.
- head over heels in love
- fall head over heels
- absolutely head over heels
Like how much of the dating advice talks about this is what it feels like when you're head over heels besotted with a guy or girl partner.
- Like how much of the dating advice talks about this is what it feels like when you're head over heels besotted with a guy or girl partner.
- They went to prom together and are head over heels in love.
- You want to be with someone that you're head over heels for.
- But first of all, if Selena was a guy, you'd be head over heels for her.
- I often found myself head over heels with the older women I was working with, which was strange.
- And I think a lot of people can relate that your first love, you are super like head over heels.
- And I the reason I like it is it, it just doesn't dance around this like we always have to be head over heels in love.
- And why did I ever think that I was doing it right and my way was right and I just shifted and he fell head over heels in love.
Examples
-
My freshman year in high school, I was head over heels in love with this girl.
Fiction book (1999) -
I would never fall that head over heels for a guy!
Blog text (22) -
And I fell head over heels in love.
-
Before you fall head over heels for your perfect girl and her perfect world.
-
Sir Robert came along and fell head over heels in love with her, and won her for himself.
Fiction book (1993) -
And then I fell head over heels.
Fiction book (1999) -
I happened to be dating my wife at the time and was head over heels in love with her.
Blog text (17) -
We started dating regularly and fell head over heels in love.
Fiction book (2002) -
When I saw her on visits to the Courantyne, I fell head over heels in love with her.
Fiction book (1997) -
She was head over heels in love with him, dreaming about their future together.
Synonyms
∞
1.9
Feeling strong romantic feelings for someone
11
6.1
Feeling a very strong but short attraction to someone, often without reason
5
6.8
Very much in love with a person, place, or thing
1
7.2
Very much in love with someone or something and often thinking only about them
1
4.8
Feeling very much in love with someone and thinking about them a lot
Antonyms
How In Love
Surface Forms
Morphology
head + over + heels
The literal constituents 'head' + 'over' + 'heels' describe an inverted physical position, but the idiomatic meaning 'very much in love' is a metaphorical extension that is not directly derivable from those words. A B1 learner who knows the individual words would most likely not infer the romantic sense without prior exposure, and many languages use different expressions for this concept, so the construction is language-specific and opaque.
Etymology
Head over heels probably comes from the idea of being turned upside down by strong feelings: your head goes over your heels, as if love makes you spin. That's why it now means 'very much in love'.