25 Idioms about Thought and Memory

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1.    a light-bulb moment – a moment of sudden inspiration or enlightenment 
2.    a senior moment – a momentary lapse in memory 
3.    a shot/stab in the dark – a guess
4.    at the back of one’s mind – mildly preoccupied by but not constantly thought about
5.    by no stretch of the imagination – definitely not the case
6.    flight of fancy – an impractical but imaginative idea
7.    in a world of one’s own – concerned with one’s own thoughts and unaware of one’s surroundings 
8.    in cloud cuckoo land – a state of over-the-top fantasy  
9.    in one ear and out the other – heard but not processed and quickly forgotten
10.    in one’s mind's eye – in one’s imagination
11.    it rings a bell – it sounds familiar
12.    mind over matter – willpower will overcome physical obstacles 
13.    out of sight, out of mind – if something is no longer visible, you will soon forget about it
14.    penny for your thoughts? –  what are you thinking about?
15.    perish the thought! – stop thinking about that!
16.    to have a brain like a sieve – to be extremely forgetful
17.    to have a mind of one’s own – to be capable of independent thoughts and actions 
18.    to have bee in one's bonnet – to be preoccupied by something, to be obsessed with something
19.    to jog someone's memory – to cause someone to suddenly remember something
20.    to slip one’s mind – to be forgotten
21.    to take a trip down memory lane – to take a figurative journey through one’s memories 
22.    to think on your feet – to react to events effectively without any preparation
23.    to think outside the box – to think of creative and unconventional solutions
24.    to toy with – to think idly about  
25.    train of thought – line of reasoning 

 

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20 Feb 2020
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