forget one's own head
Meaning: To be extremely forgetful.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “She's lost her glasses again; she'd forget her own head if it wasn't screwed on.”
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: Usually said in full: "he'd forget his own head if it wasn't screwed on." The joke is recorded from the 19th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Italian: smemorato di Collegno — literally: the forgetful one of Collegno
More idioms — Body & Senses
- take to one's heels — To run away.
- drag one's feet — To delay deliberately.
- be tone-deaf — To be unable to tell musical notes apart; also, to have no sense of how others feel.
- throw dust in someone's eyes — To mislead someone by distracting them.
- up to one's ears in debt — Deeply in debt.
- hand on heart — Said when swearing that something is completely true.
More English idioms
- any old how — Carelessly, with no attention to doing it properly.
- where the sun doesn't shine — Somewhere hidden; also a rude way of naming the body.
- without a fight — With no resistance at all.
- pave the way — To prepare the ground so that something can happen later.
- catch someone off guard — To surprise someone who is not prepared.
- all at once — Suddenly, with no warning.