thoughts racing
1
7.1
- noun
:
pensamientos acelerados
- As she prepared for the exam, her thoughts racing made it hard to concentrate on the material.
Examples
-
Does it seem like there are more thoughts racing through your mind?
Blog text (14) -
Gary was watching him fixedly, as if aware of the hellish thoughts racing through his mind.
Fiction book (2002) -
I laid awake most of the night, my thoughts racing as I tried to find a solution to my problem.
-
Seth broke into a run, his thoughts racing with various worries and distractions.
Antonyms
How Distracted
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'many competing or rapidly moving thoughts' is directly derivable from combining 'thought' (an idea) with 'race'/'racing' (to move very quickly), since 'racing' applied to thoughts clearly conveys rapid movement of ideas. This is a transparent, productive metaphorical construction common across languages and follows a familiar English noun + participle pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will likely understand it.
Etymology
Thoughts racing creates a clear image of ideas in your mind like fast horses or cars that are racing past. Because the thoughts move so quickly and all at once, you feel 'unable to focus', so the phrase means 'having many fast, hard to control thoughts'.