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Glite Dictionary
to think of England

to think of England

2 9.9
Imagine a pleasant place to help you get through an unpleasant experience
  • idiom
  • UK
translation icon : piensa en Inglaterra
  • Telling women to "lie back and think of England" until men see the light is rubbish.
  • lie back and think of England

Examples

  • They may rejoice in their former glory, but when it comes down to Socialism, they are quite happy to lay back and think of England.

    Blog text (20)

  • The women who would lie back and think of England.

    Academic text (2004)

  • Time for me to lie back and think of England.

    Blog text (21)

  • AMOS: "When in doubt, close your eyes and think of England."

    Fiction book (1997)

  • When feeling uncomfortable, she would just lie back and think of England to get through it.

  • During the difficult meeting, he tried to think of England to distract himself from the tension.

  • Whenever the situation became awkward, she would close her eyes and think of England to mentally escape.

Antonyms

to face the music
  • Informal
19 4.5

Accept and deal with unpleasant results or criticism for something you did

Surface Forms

think of England infinitive
thinking of England present participle
thinks of England third person singular
thought of England past
thought of England past participle

Morphology

think + of + England

The phrase is compositionally transparent at the lexical level — a B1 learner who knows 'think' and 'England' will understand it as 'think about England'. However, the conventionalized pragmatic meaning (using England as a specific distraction or coping strategy to endure discomfort) is a cultural/pragmatic extension that is not fully predictable from the parts, so full comprehension may require exposure.

Etymology

The phrase think of England comes from the old idea of imagining a calm, faraway place to help you get through something painful or boring. People would think about England as a pleasant escape, so the expression now means 'to mentally escape' or 'to endure by focusing on something else'.