go to someone's head

present singular third person goes to someone's head · participle present going to someone's head · past went to someone's head · participle past gone to someone's head

1. To strongly affect a person, especially to the detriment of his or her senses or mental faculties.
   1. idiomaticTo cloud one's thinking, as do alcohol and many drugs.

      Moreover, Dolores' promise had gone to my head like new wine.

      1903, Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Barr, Arthur Lawrence, Sidney Sime, editors, The Idler: an illustrated monthly magazine, volume 22

      4 more examples

      That one glass has gone to my head, that is, touched my brain; slightly, to be sure, but enough to weaken my will.

      1886, John Bartholomew Gough, Lyman Abbott, Platform Echos; or, Living Truths for Head and Heart

      Oh, red, red wine / She goes to my head / The blue cigarette / And your Italian bed

      1982, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Robin Scott, “Left Bank”, in The Arrangement

      I'm gonna start a revolution from my bed / 'Cause you said the brains I had went to my head

      1996, “Don't Look Back in Anger”, in (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, performed by Oasis

      For I am a man of many sorrows. Yet there is no necessity for me to sit sobbing and sighing in someone else's house. Unremitting grief is tiresome and I'm afraid some of your maids or you yourself might lose patience with me and conclude it was the wine that had gone to my head and released this flood of tears.

      2003, Emile Victor Rieu, D. Christopher H. Rieu, transl., The Odyssey, translation of original by Homer

      Synonyms: turn someone's head

   2. idiomaticTo greatly raise one's conception of their social status or accomplishments.

      He caught the biggest fish on record and it really went to his head.