make up one's mind

Idioms  

1. Decide between alternatives, come to a decision, as in I had trouble making up my mind about which coat I liked best. This expression dates from the early 1800s, although a similar usage appeared two centuries earlier in Shakespeare's King John (2:1): “I know she is not for this match made up.”

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Example Sentences

You may see a failure to make up one's mind between two clearly differentiated candidates as an act of ignorance or dishonesty.

From Time Magazine Archive

The flesh of the penguin is black and leathery, with a strong fishy taste, and one must be very hungry to make up one's mind to eat it.

From Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814 or the First American Settlement on the Pacific by Franchere, Gabriel

I feel that I ought to have done so, long ago; but you know, one can't always make up one's mind to be quite frank, and tell a painful story.

From Willing to Die by Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan

One has to sample several glasses of each before one can definitely make up one's mind as to which is the best.

From The Gourmet's Guide to Europe by Newnham-Davis, Lieut.-Col. (Nathaniel)

But then it's no easy matter to make up one's mind when there are so many, many pictures—and so many, many people....

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, May 26, 1920 by Various

Related Words

• accept
• adopt
• appoint
• cast
• designate
• determine
• elect
• embrace
• favor
• judge
• love
• name
• prefer
• single out
• take
• want