to one's mind

English

WOTD – 4 December 2024

Etymology

From to + one’s + mind (“judgment, opinion, view; desire, inclination, intention”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tuː wʌnz ˈmaɪnd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /tu wʌnz ˈmaɪnd/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪnd

Prepositional phrase

to one's mind (idiomatic)

2. From one's point of view, in one's opinion.

   Synonyms: in one's view, in one's book; see also Thesaurus:in my opinion

   To my mind if you’ve talked to Stacy then you’ve talked to Beth, since they tell each other everything.

   To her mind, the only thing worse than public speaking is public dancing.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], signature D, recto:

     Hora[tio] Is it a cuſtome? / Ham[let]. I [aye] marry iſt, / But to my minde, though I am natiue heere / And to the manner borne, it is a cuſtome / More honourd in the breach, then the obſeruance.

   • 1864, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “In which Lake under the Trees of Brandon, and I in My Chamber, Smoke Our Nocturnal Cigars”, in Wylder’s Hand. […], New York, N.Y.: Carleton, […], published 1865, →OCLC, page 63:

     To my mind there has always been something inexpressibly awful in family feuds.

   • 1914, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “Dusk”, in Beasts and Super-Beasts […], London: John Lane, The Bodley Head […], →OCLC, pages 125–126:

     Dusk, to his mind, was the hour of the defeated. Men and women, who had fought and lost, who hid their fallen fortunes and dead hopes as far as possible from the scrutiny of the curious, came forth in this hour of gloaming, when their shabby clothes and bowed shoulders and unhappy eyes might pass unnoticed, or, at any rate, unrecognised.

   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XXV, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page 138:

     The words were ordinary enough, and to my mind there was in them something so hortatory that I almost smiled.

   • 2009 April 17, Gabriel Sherman, “The Wail of the 1%”, in New York‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: New York Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-03-31:

     To her mind, extreme compensation is a fair trade for the compromises of such a career.

4. (archaic) According to one's desire or preference.

   Near-synonyms: to someone's liking, to someone's taste

   • 1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave], “The Table of Verbes”, in Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse⸝ […], [London]: […] [Richard Pynson] fynnysshed by Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, 3rd boke, folios cclviii, verso – cclix, recto; reprinted Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, October 1972, →OCLC:

     I haue a perſon or a beeſt accordyng to my mynde⸝ I haue them in ſuche awe as I deſyre: I ay bien a mayn, I haue this boye accordynge to my mynde: I ay ce garcon bien a mayn, or a mon intencion.

   • 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, 1 Macchabees iiij:[6], folio lxij, recto, column 2:

     But whẽ it was daie, Judas ſhewed himſelf in yͤ felde with thre thouſande men only, which had nether harneſſe ner ſweardes to their myndes.

     But when it was day, Judas [Maccabeus] showed himself in the field with three thousand men only, which had neither harness nor swords as they desired.

   • 1693, De La Quintinye [i.e., Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie], “Of Fruit-gardens and Kitchen-gardens. Chapter IV. How to Judge of the Maturity and Goodness of Fruits.”, in John Evelyn, transl., The Compleat Gard’ner; or, Directions for Cultivating and Right Ordering of Fruit-gardens; […], volume II, London: […] Matthew Gillyflower, […], and James Partridge, […], →OCLC, part V, page 86:

     [T]he Hand muſt likevviſe act its part, and concur therein [with the eye], tho' not to touch it [the fruit] roughly upon the Tree (nothing is more offenſive to me than thoſe Gropers, vvho, to gather one according to their Mind, vvill ſpoil a hundred by the violent impreſſion of their Unskillful Thumb) but I vvould have the Hand play its part in the manner I ſhall explain hereafter.

   • 1719, [Daniel Defoe], The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 248:

     If you vvill put a thouſand Pound to my thouſand Pound, vve vvill hire a Ship here, the firſt vve can get to our Minds; […]

Usage notes

• Usually used with the first-person singular possessive adjective my, but also with other possessives.
• When used with a plural possessive adjective such as our or their, the plural form minds is sometimes used in the term.

Translations

from one’s point of view — see in one's opinion

according to one’s desire or preference

• Finnish: mielensä mukaan
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• “to one’s mind” under “mind, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2023.
• “to my mind, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “to my mind”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.