to weigh on someone's mind
- phrasal verb
- She felt the pressure of her upcoming exams weighing on her mind more than ever.
- things weigh on my mind
Examples
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Worries about her health began to weigh on his mind after the doctor's visit.
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Seriously, this has been weighing on my mind.
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Uh, let me ask you something that's been, uh, weighing on my mind.
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Okay, but pensive, like you got a big decision weighing on your mind.
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♪ And it's weighing on my mind
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Other long-term consequences of treatment that might weigh on parents' minds include the effects of the chemotherapy drugs their child has to take.
Academic text (2018) -
The uncertainty of the future continued to weigh on his mind as he lay awake at night.
Synonyms
Feel afraid about what might happen to someone or something
To make someone feel nervous or upset about possible problems
To make someone feel worried or burdened
To make someone feel tense or nervous
To cause worry or sadness that stays in someone's mind
Make someone feel sad or worried
To feel a small, constant worry that bothers you
To create a dark, worrying feeling that stays with people
Keep someone worried about something bad that might happen
To make someone feel very nervous and upset
Antonyms
How Troubling
Surface Forms
Morphology
The expression maps a common weight-as-burden metaphor onto cognition: 'weigh' + 'on' + 'mind' evokes something pressing on one's thoughts, so learners who know 'weigh' and 'mind' can often infer it means causing persistent worry. However, the sense is metaphorical and relies on a conventional collocation ('weigh on someone's mind'), so understanding is partially predictable but not fully literal.
Etymology
The idiom weigh on someone's mind comes from the image of a heavy weight pressing down on the head or thoughts. So, when something weighs on your mind, it feels like a weight that makes you 'feel worried' or troubled for a long time.