Meaning & use
living rent free
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Meanings
phrasefixed phrase
Staying in a home without having to pay rent for it.
Grammar: Adapts to the tense: live rent free, lived rent free, is living rent free.
Patterns
- live rent free in something
- live rent free with someone
He spent a year living rent free in his uncle's spare room.
She was living rent free in the cottage in return for looking after it.
Nobody should expect to live rent free forever.
phraseidiominformalhumorousfigurative
Said of a thought, person or worry that stays in your mind and keeps distracting you.
Grammar: Usually completed with in someone's head or mind.
Patterns
- live rent free in someone's head
That embarrassing moment is living rent free in my head.
His song has been living rent free in my mind all week.
Stop letting your old boss live rent free in your head.
Common combinations
- live rent free in someone's head
- That ad jingle lives rent free in my head.
- stay rent free
- He stayed rent free at his friend's flat.
- living rent free with family
- After college she was living rent free with her parents.
- rent free accommodation
- The job came with rent free accommodation.
Synonyms and how they differ
- mooching
- Mooching is disapproving and implies taking advantage, while living rent free can simply describe an arrangement.
- free of charge
- Free of charge applies to anything, not only housing.
- stuck in my head
- Stuck in my head matches the figurative sense and is more common, without the joke.
Opposites
Word family
Practice
"That movie quote is living rent free in my head." What does the speaker mean?
Choose one answer.
The idiom means the thought stays in your mind without being invited. It is not about money or forgetting.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “living rent free”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.