live rent-free in someone's head
live rent-free in someone's head verb: to be the perpetual focus of someone's thoughts, with that person having no control over this situation.
Verb
live rent-free in someone's head (third-person singular simple present lives rent-free in someone's head, present participle living rent-free in someone's head, simple past and past participle lived rent-free in someone's head)
- To be the perpetual focus of someone's thoughts, with that person having no control over this situation.
- Gem of the Day: Hanging onto resentment is letting someone you despise live rent free in your head.1990 March 8, Ann Landers [Eppie Lederer], “Breast cancer is in her family”, in Daily American, volume 62, number 210, Somerset, Pa., page 12
- The difficult bosses then get under their skin and live “rent-free” in their heads long after they've left work and gone home to sleep.2010, Jennifer C. Hunt, Seven Shots: An NYPD Raid on a Terrorist Cell and Its Aftermath, page 32
- Synonyms:
- live rent-free in someone's mind
Synonyms of live rent-free in someone's head
Forms of live rent-free in someone's head
| third-person singular present | lives rent-free in someone's head |
|---|---|
| present participle | living rent-free in someone's head |
| past participle | lived rent-free in someone's head |
| past | lived rent-free in someone's head |
| alternative form | live rent free in someone's head |
Origin of live rent-free in someone's head
Often attributed to American advice columnist Eppie Lederer (1918–2002), who used it in her syndicated advice column in 1990.
Questions about live rent-free in someone's head
- What does live rent-free in someone's head mean?
- Live rent-free in someone's head means to be the perpetual focus of someone's thoughts, with that person having no control over this situation.
- What part of speech is live rent-free in someone's head?
- Live rent-free in someone's head is a verb.
- What is the past tense of live rent-free in someone's head?
- The past tense of live rent-free in someone's head is lived rent-free in someone's head.
Words near live rent-free in someone's head in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: live rent-free in someone's head (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “live rent-free in someone's head.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/live_rent-free_in_someone%27s_head. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.