thinking

thinking

I

think‧ing¹ /ˈθɪŋkɪŋ/ noun [uncountable]1. your opinion or ideas about something, or your attitude towards it:
    The Administration’s thinking changed as the war progressed.
    Well, to my way of thinking (=in my opinion), they should have done that years ago.
    He laughed and accused me of wishful thinking (=falsely believing that something will happen just because I want it to).
    the rich countries’ current thinking on aid
    thinking behind
    the thinking behind the company’s new public relations campaign
2. when you think about something:
    If it weren’t for Jeff’s quick thinking, Tillie could have been badly hurt.
    I really needed to do some thinking.
    clear/critical/analytical etc thinking (=a particular way of thinking about things)
3. put on your thinking cap informal to try to think seriously about a problem in order to solve it
⇨ lateral thinking
     

COLLOCATIONS

(for Meaning 2)

■ verbs
   ▪ do some thinking I’ve had a chance to do some thinking.
■ adjectives
   ▪ quick thinking He was only saved by the quick thinking of two doctors.
   ▪ hard thinking Over the next two days a lot of hard thinking went into the campaign.
   ▪ serious thinking Your mother and I have been doing some serious thinking.
   ▪ clear/logical thinking Above 24,000 feet, the lack of oxygen makes clear thinking almost impossible.
   ▪ critical thinking (=when you make careful judgments about how good or bad something is) Rudi wanted them to practice critical thinking by analysing the world they lived in.
   ▪ creative thinking (=when you use your imagination to produce new ideas or things) Her solution to the problem was an example of good creative thinking.
   ▪ joined-up thinking British English (=when all the different parts of a plan or situation are considered together, so that it has better results) The media has criticized the lack of joined-up thinking in the government’s plans for dealing with a terrorist attack.
   ▪ good thinking (=used to say that an idea is good) ‘We’d better lock the door.’ ‘Good thinking.’

II

thinking² adjective [only before noun]1. a thinking person is intelligent and tries to think carefully about important subjects
2. the thinking man’s/woman’s etc something used to say that someone or something is liked by intelligent people:
    the thinking man’s pop band