cross one's mind

Idioms and Phrases

Also, pass through one's mind . Suddenly occur to one, as in It never crossed my mind that they would turn the proposal down , or It passed through her mind that he might have gotten lost . [Mid-1700s]

Example Sentences

“I think it’s hard for that thought not to cross one’s mind,” Sittenfeld told me in a recent interview.

From New York Times

The thought is apt to cross one’s mind, sitting in the Blackfriars Playhouse in this inviting and increasingly hip Shenandoah Valley city, 150 miles or so southwest of Washington.

From Washington Post

The idea of marriage does cross one's mind occasionally, and one naturally wonders what you would do to make it possible.

From Project Gutenberg

Cross′wise, in the form of a cross: across.—Cross as two sticks, particularly perverse and disagreeable.—Cross the path of any one, to thwart him; Cross one's mind, to flash across the mind.

From Project Gutenberg

It is astonishing, humbling, awful, my friends, what horrible thoughts will cross one’s mind if once one gives way to that selfish, proud, angry, longing temper; thoughts of which we are ashamed the next moment; temptations to sin at which we shudder, they seem so unlike ourselves, not parts of ourselves at all. 

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• hit
• reveal
• strike