mind

plural minds

1. countableuncountableThe capability for rational thought.

   Despite advancing age, his mind was still as sharp as ever.

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   And ſure, although it was invented to eaſe his mynde of griefe, there be a number of caveats therein to forewarne other young gentlemen to foreſtand with good government their folowing yl fortunes; […]

   1576, George Whetstone, “The Ortchard of Repentance: […]”, in The Rocke of Regard, […], London: […] [H. Middleton] for Robert Waley, →OCLC; republished in J[ohn] P[ayne] Collier, editor, The Rocke of Regard, […] (Illustrations of Early English Poetry; vol. 2, no. 2), London: Privately printed, [1867?], →OCLC, page 291

   “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”

   1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: brain, head, intellect, intelligence, nous, psyche, reason, wit

2. countableuncountableThe ability to be aware of things.

   There was no doubt in his mind that they would win.

   Synonyms: awareness, consciousness, sentience

3. countableuncountableThe ability to remember things.

   My mind just went blank.

   Synonyms: memory, recollection, memory, recall, recollection, remembrance, reminiscence

4. countableuncountableThe ability to focus the thoughts.

   I can’t keep my mind on what I’m doing.

   Synonyms: attention, concentration, focus

5. countableuncountableSomebody that embodies certain mental qualities.

   He was one of history’s greatest minds.

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   I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, […]

   1956, Allen Ginsberg, “Howl”, in Howl and Other Poems (Pocket Poets Series), City Lights Books, →OCLC, page 9

   That's far from the promised land set out in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, that the railways would have a guiding mind that would be in control of the industry's finances. Businesses have what is called a profit and loss account, showing both revenue and costs, but the current situation means that the two sides of the system are in different hands - and neither is (as yet) in the hands of a 'guiding mind'.

   2022 November 16, Christian Wolmar, “Can Merriman use his rail knowledge to make a difference?”, in RAIL, number 970, page 45

   Synonyms: genius, intellectual, thinker, brain, brain surgeon, brainbox, brainiac, deep thinker

6. countableuncountableThinking characteristic of particular group.

   Who knows what really goes through the criminal mind?

7. countableuncountableJudgment, opinion, or view.

   He changed his mind after hearing the speech.

   Synonyms: judgment, judgement, idea, opinion, view, award, censure, choice

8. countableuncountableDesire, inclination, or intention.

   I am of a mind to listen.

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   She had a mind to go to Paris.

   I have half a mind to do it myself.

   I fortuned to come in, Thys rebell to behold, Whereof I hym controld; But he sayde that he wolde Agaynst my mynde and wyll In my church hawke styll.

   c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 64, lines 94–99

   Although Miss Pross, through her long association with a French family, might have known as much of their language as of her own, if she had had a mind, she had no mind in that direction […] So her manner of marketing was to plump a noun-substantive at the head of a shopkeeper without any introduction in the nature of an article […]

   1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

   Synonyms: desire, disposition, idea, inclination, intention, mood, ambition, appetite

9. countableuncountableA healthy mental state.

   You are losing your mind.

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   I, ______ being of sound mind and body, do hereby[…]

   Synonyms: lucidity, sanity, buttons, lucidity, lucidness, marbles, saneness, sanity

10. countableuncountablehuman sciencesThe non-material substance or set of processes in which consciousness, perception, affectivity, judgement, thinking, and will are based.

    The nature of the mind is a major topic in philosophy.

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    Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

    1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations

    The mind is that part of our being which thinks and wills, remembers and reasons; we know nothing of it except from these functions.

    1854, Samuel Knaggs, Unsoundness of Mind Considered in Relation to the Question of Responsibility for Criminal Acts, page 19

    Thus they dwelled for nearly a year, and in that time Robin Hood often turned over in his mind many means of making an even score with the Sheriff.

    1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC

    […] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.

    1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

    Synonyms: cognition, learning

11. countableuncountableContinual prayer on a dead person's behalf for a period after their death.

    a month's [or monthly] mind; a year's mind

12. uncountableAttention, consideration or thought.

    If you get a “trolling” comment, delete it, do not respond to it, and move forward immediately without paying any further mind.

    2014, Jolie O'Dell, Blogging for Photographers, page 66

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    They are the “tars” who give mind to the spreading sail, and their bold courage is the pabulum which will preserve our sea-girt isle in its vernal green to furthest posterity.

    1849, Eliza Cook, Eliza Cook’s Journal,p.119, volume 1

    Then he, having mind of Beelzebub, the god of flies, fled without a halt homewards; but, falling in the coo's loan, broke two ribs and a collar bone, the whilk misfortune was much blessed to his soul.

    1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

    Synonyms: heed, mark, notice, advertence, advertency, attention, consideration, heed

present singular third person minds · participle present minding · participle past minded · past minded · first person past singular minded · archaic present second person singular mindest · past second person singular minded · archaic past second person singular mindedst · present singular third person minds · archaic present singular third person mindeth · past singular third person minded · past plural minded · past subjunctive minded · participle present minding · participle past minded

1. To bring or recall to mind; to remember; bear or keep in mind.

   Mind to-morrow's early meeting!

   1878, Robert Browning, La Saisiaz, line 70

2. regionalTo remember.First known use 14th c.

   The land where I shall mind you not / Is the land where all's forgot.

   1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, XXXVII, lines 25-26

3. dialectalobsoleteTo remind; put one's mind on.

   1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, The Sacred Theory of the Earth I desire to mind those persons of what Saint Austin hath said.

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   Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day: / And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it, / For thou art framed of the firm truth of valour.

   1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]

   Let me be punished, that have minded you Of what you should forget.

   c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

   This minds me of a cobbling colonel of famous memory.

   1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

   I shall only mind him, that the contrary supposition, if it could be proved, is of little use.

   1689, John Locke, “Of True and False Ideas”, in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

   He minded them of the mutability of all earthly things.

   1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)

4. To turn one's mind to; to observe; to notice.

   Mind the new detour signs. If you don't mind, you'll end up running into bears in the forest.

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   Here comes a spirit of his, and to torment me / For bringing wood in slowly. I'll fall flat; / Perchance he will not mind me.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]

5. To regard with attention; to treat as of consequence.

   Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 12:16

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   It's the worst thing that can ever happen to you in all your life, and you've got to mind it—you've got to mind it. They'll come saying, 'Bear up—trust to time.' No, no; they're wrong. Mind it.

   1907 E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part I, V [Uniform ed., p. 63]

6. imperativeTo pay attention or heed to so as to obey; hence to obey; to make sure, to take care (that).First known use 17th c.

   Mind you don't knock that glass over.

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   Scott: […] He can see by you stropping off you don’t want to be around him, so he’s not coming after you – but at the same time, obviously yeah he is concerned about your fuckin’ happiness and well-being. So Lee says to me, Scotty, pop along and mind she’s alright.

   2010, Gary Owen, Love Steals Us from Loneliness, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 14–15

7. now rare except in phrasesTo pay attention to, in the sense of occupying one's mind with, to heed.First known use 15th c.

   You should mind your own business.

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   My lord, you nod: you do not mind the play.

   c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   Upon my coming down, I found all the Children of the Family got about my old Friend, and my Landlady herself, who is a notable prating Gossip, engaged in a Conference with him; being mightily pleased with his stroaking her little Boy upon the Head, and bidding him be a good Child and mind his Book.

   1712, Joseph Addison, Spectator, No. 383 (May 20, 1710

   Should you ever have a son, Sansa, beat him frequently so he learns to mind you.

   2000 August 8, George R[aymond] R[ichard] Martin, “Sansa [Stark]”, in A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire; 3), London: Voyager, →ISBN, page 68

   Synonyms: heed

8. To look after, to take care of, especially for a short period of time.First known use 17th c.

   Would you mind my bag for me?

9. To be careful about.First known use 18th c.

   Bank Underground Station, London, is built on a curve, leaving a potentially dangerous gap between platform and carriage to trap the unwary. The loudspeaker voice instructs passengers to "Mind the gap": the boundary between train and platform.

   2005, Gillie Bolton, Reflective Practice: Writing And Professional Development, →ISBN, page xv

10. now obsolete outside dialectTo purpose, intend, plan.

    I mind to tell him plainly what I think.

    c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]

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    […]and if ever I refused to do his bidding or loitered or took my leisure he beat me with his feet more grievously than if I had been beaten with whips. He ceased not to signal with his hand wherever he was minded to go; so I carried him about the island, like a captive slave, and he bepissed and conskited my shoulders and back, dismounting not night nor day; and whenas he wished to sleep he wound his legs about his neck and leaned back and slept awhile, then arose and beat me; whereupon I sprang up in haste, unable to gainsay him because of the pain he inflicted on me.

    1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC

11. IrelandUKTake note; used to point out an exception or caveat.

    I'm not very healthy. I do eat fruit sometimes, mind.

12. To dislike, to object to; to be bothered by.First known use 16th c.

    Do you mind if I smoke?

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    I wouldn't mind an ice cream right now.