on my mind
275
3.4
- idiom
:
estar en mi mente
- Say exactly what's on your mind, dear.
- things on my mind
- much on my mind
But I had bigger things on my mind and like colors and shapes.
- But I had bigger things on my mind and like colors and shapes.
- No, because it was always on my mind that this was deja vu.
- OK, guys, here's something that's been on my mind for like a a minute.
- And yeah, I'm just, I guess I got a lot on my mind right now.
- And you know, it was, it was kind of playing on my mind like the first year.
- And I think a lot of this sort of played on my mind over the years.
- And so I head into the grocery store with one thing on my mind, ice cream for my family.
- It's just me and whatever thoughts are on my mind as soon as I wake up.
- I'm going to take a slight detour because this is on my mind.
Examples
-
My city and what happened to it since World War II were always on my mind.
Fiction book (1993) -
I love that I'm able to share everything on my mind at any moment.
-
But this movie had all these other things that were on my mind too.
-
And you know, it was, it was kind of playing on my mind like the first year.
-
It's been playing on my mind, that has.
-
In this issue, I decided to write about something that has been on my mind for quite some time.
Academic text (2014) -
And so I head into the grocery store with one thing on my mind, ice cream for my family.
-
"I have a lot of things on my mind," the student replied.
Academic text (2000) -
I just have a lot on my mind, that's all.
-
I often find it difficult to concentrate when I have so many tasks on my mind.
Synonyms
928
1.2
To think about as a plan or choice
3
4.7
The thing someone thinks about most right now
Thinking about something a lot and feeling worried
The main thing you are thinking about now
Antonyms
How Preoccupied
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase composes the locative preposition 'on' with the possessive 'my' and the noun 'mind' to express something located in one's thoughts; this is a straightforward locative-to-mental metaphor that B1 learners can infer from the parts. Similar constructions exist in many languages (e.g. Spanish 'en mi mente', French 'dans mon esprit'), so the meaning 'continuously occupying one's thoughts' is readily derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
On my mind may come from the simple picture of something sitting on your mind, like a little note stuck to your head that you keep seeing. So it means 'always in your thoughts' or 'you cannot stop thinking about it'.