scratch one's head
English
Etymology
scratch + one's + head
Verb
scratch one's head (third-person singular simple present scratches one's head, present participle scratching one's head, simple past and past participle scratched one's head)
- (idiomatic) To puzzle, ponder, or wonder about something.
- Faced with a box full of hundreds of small parts and forty pages worth of assembly instructions, he could do little more than stand there and scratch his head.
- 2010 December 28, Owen Phillips, “Sunderland 0 - 2 Blackpool”, in BBC:
- But Sunderland will be left scratching their heads at the result after creating enough chances to have won two games in a refreshingly open and frantic first period.
Derived terms
- head scratcher