idea — ODE · Shobdo

idea /ʌɪˈdɪə

▸ noun

1 a thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action:

the idea of linking pay to performance has caught on

it's a good idea to do some research before you go.

▪ a mental impression:

our menu list will give you some idea of how interesting a low-fat diet can be.

▪ an opinion or belief:

nineteenth-century ideas about drinking.

2 (the idea) the aim or purpose:

I took a job with the idea of getting some money together.

3 Philosophy (in Platonic thought) an eternally existing pattern of which individual things in any class are imperfect copies.

▪ (in Kantian thought) a concept of pure reason, not empirically based in experience.

– PHRASES

get ideas informal
become ambitious, conceited, or tempted to do something unwise:

I don't want you getting any ideas about me just because we're thrown together like this.

give someone ideas informal
make someone ambitious, conceited, or tempted to do something unwise:

don't go giving them any ideas.

have no idea /ˌhav nəʊ ʌɪˈdɪə

/ (also have got no idea) informal
not know at all:

she had no idea where she was going.

not someone's idea of informal
not what someone regards as a typical or adequate example of:

it's not my idea of a happy ending.

put ideas into someone's head
cause someone to start thinking about something, typically something regarded as unwise:

his warnings against wrongdoing put ideas into her head.

that's an idea informal
that suggestion or proposal is worth considering.

that's the idea informal
used as confirmation that someone has understood something or they are doing something correctly:

‘A sort of bodyguard?’ ‘That's the idea.’.

the very idea! informal
an exclamation of disapproval or disagreement.

you have no idea
you cannot understand or imagine:

you have no idea how much it means to me.

– ORIGIN late Middle English (in idea (sense 3 of the noun)): via Latin from Greek idea ‘form, pattern’, from the base of idein ‘to see’.