in my mind's eye
13
6.7
- idiom
- Literature
:
en mi imaginación
- I can easily picture my childhood home in my mind's eye.
- see in my mind's eye
Examples
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As I read the story, I saw the adventure unfold in my mind's eye.
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The scene appeared in my mind's eye like a small dim window flickering open in a velvet darkness.
Fiction book (1995) -
It's something that you see in your mind's eye.
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Just picture it in your mind's eye.
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I can still see the entire scene in my mind's eye as clearly as I saw it that day.
Fiction book (1993) -
I see Rose in my mind's eye.
Fiction book (2002) -
Then I picture in my mind's eye all the cool things that are happening so far.
Blog text (23) -
I see you, in my mind's eye... as I saw you that first day so long ago... when you came into my father's shop.
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Join me in my mind's eye for a scene I have imagined many times.
Academic text (2000) -
Morgan could see the gathering in her mind's eye.
Fiction book (1999)
Synonyms
23
5.6
The ability to imagine pictures and scenes in your head
Antonyms
How Vivid
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'mind' + possessive + 'eye' and the locative 'in', so a learner who knows 'mind', 'eye' and 'in' can plausibly infer an image-seeing meaning — the 'eye' belonging to the mind, i.e. mental vision. However, this is a metaphorical extension rather than a strictly literal composition and may not be fully predictable without some exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
In my mind's eye comes from the idea of an inner mind's eye that 'sees' pictures of memories and ideas, an image used by old writers like Shakespeare. So the phrase means 'in your imagination' or 'as you picture it' today.