over someone's head
7
8.1
- idiom
- Informal
- I'm in way over my head, mister.
- goes over someone's head
Examples
-
Ray would talk about money and investments and shit like that, and it would just go over my head.
-
I don't know, but whatever it is, he's in over his head.
-
- I think this is just going right over his head.
-
Sometimes his words do go over my head.
-
This boy's in way over his head.
-
Unfortunately, most of the information went right over kids' heads.
Blog text (8) -
He's in way over his head.
-
Well, that went right over everybody's head.
Blog text (29) -
Sometimes going over people's heads isn't a good thing.
Blog text (3) -
His explanation was so complex that it went right over someone's head.
Synonyms
649
8.6
Not clear enough to understand
46
7.4
Not understood or appreciated by someone
46
8.8
Difficult or impossible to understand
37
8.2
Hard to understand because it is unclear or complex
12
8.9
Hard to understand because it shows no clear meaning or feeling
12
6.4
Difficult to understand
8
8.8
Too hard to read or understand
4
8.3
Very hard to understand
2
7.5
Hard to understand and making people feel confused
1
8.4
Difficult to read from a person's face or behavior
1
9.9
A subject that only a few people understand because it is hard to follow
1
8.2
Not possible to understand or explain
1
9.9
Very hard to understand
1
8.7
Not fully understood by people
1
7.8
Cannot deal with a new or difficult situation
Hard to understand or explain
Very hard to understand because it is complicated
Antonyms
How Difficult
46
8.8
- Informal
7
8.1
∞
1.6
274
4.4
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase creates a clear spatial image from 'over' + 'someone's' + 'head' (something passing above a person's head), which maps metaphorically onto the idea of information being beyond a person's comprehension. Because the meaning relies on a figurative spatial-to-cognitive mapping that may not be immediately deducible in all contexts, it is partially predictable but not fully transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Over someone's head may come from the simple picture of something floating over a person's head, so they cannot see it or reach it. That's why we use it to say something is 'too difficult to understand'.