head in the clouds
phrase1
Figuratively, Usually, With have or with Used to indicate that a person is distracted or disconnected from the present situation or reality in general.
2
Figuratively, Usually, With have or with Used to indicate that a person has fantastic or impractical dreams.
- "Wife, I've a grave suspicion!" said Mahony, and took her by the chin. "While I've sat here with my head in the clouds, you've been worrying over ways and means, and over having such an unpractical old dreamer for a husband. Now, child, that won't do. I didn't marry to have my girl puzzling her little brains where her next day's dinner was to come from. Away with you, to your stitching! Things will be all right, trust to me."1917, Henry Handel Richardson, chapter III, in Australia Felix, part III:
- She was also one of the few girls without her head in the clouds.1994, Roy F. Baumeister, Sara R. Wotman, Breaking Hearts: The Two Sides of Unrequited Love, page 72:
1 more example
- No one ever expected him to work; he would see his little sister stooping under the weight of the great milk-pails, and never think of helping her; he lived with his head in the clouds, but his father said, "Let him alone, he'll be a great man some day."1860, “A Legend of the Aryan Race”, in Charles Dickens, editor, All the Year Round, volumes 3-4, page 211:
- Synonyms
- cloud nine
- Antonyms
- feet on the ground
- Derived terms
- cloud-headed