head in clouds
Mind wandering elsewhere
Head in clouds describes someone lost in daydreams or impractical thoughts, disconnected from reality or present circumstances.
The image is of a person so tall—or so distracted—that their head floats among the clouds while life happens below: She's got her head in the clouds if she thinks that plan will work.
Often implies gentle criticism of idealism over practicality.
- daydreamConscious fantasy while awake
- lost in thoughtDeeply mentally preoccupied
- dreamyVague and pleasantly distracted
- distractedUnable to concentrate
- absent-mindedProne to forgetting things
wool gathering · wandering · fantasy · pie in the sky · castle in the air · lost · drifting · unfocused · spaced · zoned out · space cadet · hazy · idealist · reverie · faraway · miles away · wistful · floating
- absent-minded professormessy desk, wild hair, forgetful, lost keys, mismatched socks
- absent-mindednessabsent-minded, forgetfulness, distraction, spacing out, zoning out
- daydreamingdaydreaming, daydreams, fantasies, deep in thought, musings
- inattentiondistracted, spacing, absent-minded, distraction, obliviousness
- Weather Idiomsunder the weather, when it rains it pours, come rain or shine, rain check, take a rain check
- distractionsdistraction, digression, tangent, sidetrack, diversion
head in cloudsdown-to-earth
Practical and without pretension
grounded · feet on the ground · practical · pragmatic · realistic
head in cloudsalert
Warning or watchfulness
attentive · present · focused · on the ball · sharp
head in cloudsrealistic
True to life
clear-eyed · clear-sighted · hard-nosed · sober · unsentimental
head, heads, headed, heading, header, headless, headfirst, overhead, cloud