Also: Have a head like a sieve
Meaning of Idiom ‘Have a Memory Like a Sieve’
To have a memory like a sieve is to be very forgetful or have a poor memory. 1Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth M. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Idioms. Ware: Wordsworth, 1995.,2Jarvie, Gordon. Bloomsbury Dictionary of Idioms. London: Bloomsbury, 2009
Sentence Examples
“The police had high hopes after finding a witness to the robbery but it turned out he had a memory like a sieve.”
After Sean forgot their dinner date, Joan said “Sean is a typical man. He has a memory like a sieve.”
Origin
The memory has been compared to a sieve since at least the early 1800’s. An anonymous but quite well-known poem from the era illustrates:
“What holy lives we all should live,
Might we remember joy and pain,
Alas, that memory like a sieve,
Should hold the chaff and drop the grain!”
Used since the late 1800’s, the idiom alludes to the ease at which materials can pass through a sieve. Since a sieve cannot hold very much material, and what it does hold is generally undesired, to have a memory like a sieve is to be unable to retain much useful information.
More Idioms Starting with H
- Hell-bent For Leather Meaning and Etymology
- Hurry Up and Wait Meaning and Military Use
- Hobson’s Choice Meaning
- Huckleberry Friend Meaning
- To Have a Backbone (or Grow a Backbone)
More Have Idioms
- What Have You Idiom Meaning
- Houston, We Have a Problem: Meaning, Sentences, and Origin
- Have Something Out
- Have It In For Someone
- Have a Bone To Pick
More Memory Idioms