turn head
turn (one's) head
1. To avoid paying attention to something uncomfortable, undesirable, unsafe, or inconvenient. We all knew that what the board of directors was doing was wrong, but we all just turned our heads because we were still profiting from it. Everyone turned their heads when we raised concerns years ago, and look at what happened as a result!
2. To cause one to suddenly become fixated or infatuated. She spent all summer exercising and changing her eating habits, and she turned everyone's heads when she came back to school that fall.
3. To cause one to become arrogant, conceited, or self-important. He's a pretty mediocre writer, but getting published in that literary journal seems to have turned his head.
See also: head, turn
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
turn someone's head
Fig. [for flattery or success] to distract someone; to cause someone not to be sensible. Don't let our praise turn your head. You're not perfect! Her successes had turned her head. She was now quite arrogant.
See also: head, turn
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
turn someone's head, to
To influence someone’s mind-set, particularly so as to make him or her conceited. Seneca had the idea (and his translator the phrase) almost two thousand years ago (Ad Lucilium): “His head was turned by too great success.”
See also: turn
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- turn (one's) head
- turn one's head
- turn somebody's head
- turn someone's head
- You got to do what you got to do
- you have to do what you have to do
- you('ve) got to do what you('ve) got to do
- you('ve) gotta do what you('ve) gotta do
- dodge
- dodge a bullet