do someone's head in

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

do someone's head in (third-person singular simple present does someone's head in, present participle doing someone's head in, simple past did someone's head in, past participle done someone's head in)

1. (UK, Australia, informal, idiomatic) To frustrate, infuriate, irritate or disturb someone.

   Please stop reading the name of every sign we come across; it's doing my head in!

   • 2005, Richard Bryant-Jefferies, Responding to a Serious Mental Health Problem: Person-Centred Dialogues‎, page 101:

     ‘So you spend the nights listening to music?’
     ‘And thinking. Does my head in, thoughts going round and round. Dope stops it. The medication sort of does a bit, but not the same.’

   • 2006, Claire Taylor, quoting “Donnie”, Young People in Care and Criminal Behaviour, page 121,

     I just want to get out there to me bird really...′cos she don′t want me in here all the time, it′s doing her head in. It′s doing my head in. It didn′t used to do my head in, it used to be like care, if you know what I mean, when I first started coming to jail. It used to be like ‘yeah, I′m back in care’ kind of thing.

   • 2011, Giorgio Pin, An Interesting Life‎, page 75:

     The endless hours spent in my cell did my head in. With my diagnosed mental illness I find it shocking that I should have had to endure this.