English

Verb

put someone in mind of

1. (idiomatic) To remind someone of; to inspire a mental image or awareness of; to cause thoughts concerning.
   • 1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, act 2:

     Your talking of a retreat, Mr. Marlow, puts me in mind of the Duke of Marlborough, when we went to besiege Denain.

   • 1815, Walter Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. 23:

     "Ye hae a face and a tongue that puts me in mind of auld times."

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, chapter XIII, Democracy

     Sisterhood, brotherhood was often forgotten; but not till the rise of these ultimate Mammon and Shotbelt Gospels, did I ever see it so expressly denied. If no pious Lord or Law-ward would remember it, always […] some pious thoughtful Elder, what we now call ‘Prester,’ Presbyter or ‘Priest,’ was there to put' all men in mind of it, in the name of the God who had made all.

   • 1981, Peter Stoler, "The Once and Future Zoo," Time, 28 Sep.:

     Who will inherit the earth? . . . Most futurists and even some zoologists tend toward the whimsical: late-late-show killer ants, say, or playful monsters that put one in mind of Lewis Carroll's frumious Bandersnatch.

   • 2008, Dave McGinn, "Chilly scenes . . . of winter past," Globe and Mail (Toronto), 19 Dec. (retrieved 2 Jan. 2009):

     With this weekend's whack of snow, Torontonians will be put in mind of last year's chaos.