lost in thought
- idiom
- But she was silent now, lost in thought, and Forrest began to notice it, too.
They are lost in thought, they are lost in emotion.
- They are lost in thought, they are lost in emotion.
- Most of the time we are just lost in thought.
- Yeah, it's, it's all downstream of this initial clinging to self and this initial being lost in thought.
- There was an Indian teacher who described the essential human condition as lost in thought.
- Like when, when you're when you're practicing mindfulness, mindfulness dualistically, you get lost in thought and you notice it.
Examples
-
Brian sits staring into his locker, lost in thought, his equipment stacked up on the bench beside him.
Fiction book (1991) -
Soran is sitting at the table, staring out at the stars, lost in thought.
Fiction book (1994) -
Boy, you look lost in thought.
-
You seem... lost in thought.
-
I was lost in thought...
-
Lloyd is driving, and Mary is in the back, looking out the window, lost in thought.
Fiction book (1994) -
Martin sat staring at the words and the paper, lost in thought for a long time.
Fiction book (1995) -
Sarah was just sitting there, all clenched up with her arms wrapped around herself, lost in thought.
Fiction book (1999) -
Wolf seemed lost in thought as he sipped his coffee at the breakfast table.
Fiction book (1991) -
Sitting on the back porch of his new house, he seems lost in thought.
Synonyms
Not paying attention because your mind is somewhere else
A person who often does not pay attention and forgets small things like keys
Absorbed in thought and not aware of your surroundings
Lost in thought and not paying attention to what is around
Focusing very seriously on something in your mind
Thinking deeply about something else and not noticing what is around you
Thinking about something all the time and not paying attention
Antonyms
How Absorbed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'lost' (not mentally present/absent), 'in' (inside), and 'thought' (thinking), yielding the idea of being absorbed in one's thoughts. This figurative composition is common and mirrored in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Lost in thought comes from the image of a person who is lost, like on a path, inside their thoughts, so they do not notice what is around them. So, it means 'deeply absorbed' or 'unaware of surroundings'.