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Glite Dictionary
🏠 Without paying rent 🧠 Always on your mind
rent-free

rent-free

1 8.2
To stay in someone's mind when they do not want it
  • adverb
  • /rɛnt-fri/
  • Slang
: en la cabeza
  • This quote has lived with me rent free ever since.
  • live rent-free

Me doing or they won't or me doing that is is a sign that they won all the rent that they're that that's living in my head rent free.

Examples

  • I remind myself all the time that I need to stop letting them "live rent-free" in my head; it's just difficult to do consistently.

    Blog text (25)

  • I live rent-free in this dude's head.

    Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)

  • Crystal, the Ear Biscuits moment that lives in my head rent free is when Red was telling his story about his family trip to Scotland.

  • She's just gonna let you live there rent-free?

    Prime (2005)

  • I think that when someone zings a birther comment at this point, it is to live rent-free in that person's head.

    Blog text (28)

  • Author Isabelle Holland reminds us, "As long as you don't forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy a rent-free space in your mind."

    Blog text (17)

  • I can't believe I let that argument live in my head rent-free after all these years.

  • Watching that movie keeps playing in my mind rent-free even though I didn't like it.

  • That embarrassing moment from school still occupies a rent-free space in my thoughts.

Synonyms

to live rent-free
vsrent-free
  • Slang
1 8.6

A thought that stays in your mind and bothers you

is more about causing annoyance and taking attention without consent than lack of effort
to live rent-free in someone's head
vsrent-free
  • Slang
1 8.4

To stay constantly in someone's thoughts and annoy them

is more about causing annoyance and distraction than strong mental domination

Antonyms

peace of mind
67 3.0

A calm feeling with no worry

How Intrusive

obsessive
3 6.5
rent-free
  • Slang
1 8.2
on my mind
142 3.4
noticeable
65 3.2
forgettable
16 3.8

Surface Forms

rent-free positive

Morphology

rent-free = rent + free (semi-transparent) = rent + free

The components are clear, but the modern figurative sense of someone occupying your mind is a conventional metaphor rather than a literal combination.

Etymology

Rent-free is also used informally; a helpful way to remember this use is to imagine someone living in your head 'without paying rent' and taking up space in your thoughts. So saying someone lives rent-free in your mind means they keep occupying your thoughts or feelings.