| 释义 |
▪ I. heart, n.|hɑːt|
Forms: 1–3 heorte, 3–6 herte, 4–6 harte, 4–7 hert, hart, 6– heart. (Also 1 north. hearta, 2–3 horte, hierte, 3 Orm. heorrte, herrte, 3–4 s.w. hurte, 4 huerte, ert, 4–6 hertte, hartt, herth, 6 hearte, 6–7 Sc. hairt).
[Com. Teut.: OE. heorte (Northumb. hearta) = OFris. herte, hirte, OS. herta (MLG. herte, MDu. hert(e, hart(e, Du. hart), OHG. herza (MHG. herze, Ger. herz), ON. hjarta (Sw. hjerta, Da. hjerte), Goth. hairtô:—OTeut. *herton-; orig. a weak neuter, which became in OE. and OFris. a weak fem., in MLG. and MDu. fem. or neuter. Radically related to L. cor, cord-, Gr. καρδ-ία, κραδ-ία (also κῆρ from κηρδ-); OIr. cride, Lith. szird-ìs, OSlav. srĭdĭ-tse, srŭdĭ-tse (Russ. serd-tse, Boh. srd-ce) heart; root kerd-, kṛd-.]
General arrangement. I. The simple word. *The bodily organ, its function, etc., 1–4. **As the seat of feeling, etc., 5–13. ***Put for the person, 14–16. ****Something having a central position, 17–19. *****The vital part or principle, 20–22. ******Something of the shape of a heart, 23–30. II. Phrases. *With governing preposition, 31–39. **With verb and preposition, 40–44. ***With governing verb, 45–49. ****With another noun, 50–52. *****In exclamations, 53. ******Proverbial phrases, 54. III. Attributive uses and Combinations, 55–56.
I. The simple word.
* The bodily organ, its function, region, etc.
1. a. The hollow muscular or otherwise contractile organ which, by its dilatation and contraction, keeps up the circulation of the blood in the vascular system of an animal.
c1000Sax. Leechd. III. 42 Gif þin heorte ace. c1175Lamb. Hom. 121 He wes..mid speres orde to þere heorte istungen. a1300K. Horn 872 He smot him þureȝ þe herte. 1382Wyclif 2 Kings ix. 24 The arewe is sent out thoruȝ his hert. c1440Promp. Parv. 237/2 Hert, ynwarde parte of a beste. 1483Cath. Angl. 177/1 A Harte, cor, cordialis, corculum. 1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 183 [He] stacke the erle to y⊇ hart with his dagger. 1548–77Vicary Anat. vii. (1888) 56 The Hart..is the principal of al other members, and the beginning of life. 1607Shakes. Cor. i. i. 140, I send it through the Riuers of your blood Euen to the Court, the Heart. 1615Crooke Body of Man 357 The vse of this Mediastinum or bound-hedge is first to hold the hart vp suspended. 1664Power Exp. Philos. 58 Perfect Animals have an incessant motion of their Heart, and Circulation of their Bloud. 1812Morn. Chron. in Examiner 25 May 336/2 After the body of Bellingham was opened, it was noticed that his heart continued to perform its functions..for four hours. 1841–71T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 556 A heart is present in all the Brachiopoda. 1872Mivart Elem. Anat. i. 4 The Heart..is rhythmically contractible and propulsive. 1887H. S. Cunningham Cœruleans I. 145 Camilla's heart went pit-a-pat. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 297, I saw a sight that made my heart stand still.
fig.a1822Shelley Ode to Heaven 44 Drops which Nature's mighty heart Drives through thinnest veins. 1842Tennyson Locksley Hall 140 Tho' the deep heart of existence beat for ever like a boy's. 1866Longfellow Killed at Ford i, The heart of honor, the tongue of truth.
b. right (left) heart, the right (or left) side of the heart.
1886Cassell's Fam. Mag. Nov. 722 Those who suffer from chronic rheumatism have often weak right hearts.
c. A diseased or disordered heart: often with defining word; as athletic heart, simple hypertrophy of the heart with no disease of the valves; fatty heart (see fatty a. 5); smoker's heart, a disordered condition of the heart due to excessive tobacco-smoking.
1862W. H. Walshe Pract. Treat. Dis. Heart (ed. 3) ii. 320 Patients..often express themselves, ‘they have a heart’, (the mildest form of cardiac paræsthesia). 1871Da Costa in Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. LXI. 17, I noticed cases of a peculiar form of functional disorder of the heart, to which I gave the name of irritable heart. 1886Fagge & Pye-Smith Princ. Med. II. 41 Rather more than a century ago Haller described the ‘hairy’ heart as occurring especially in bold and adventurous men. 1888Science (N.Y.) 9 Nov. 223/2 The frequent existence of what is known as ‘smoker's heart’ in men whose health is in no other respect disturbed. 1902Daily Chron. 3 Nov. 8/4 [He] has been forbidden to row again..owing to his having developed ‘a heart’. 1908Westm. Gaz. 29 Oct. 14/1 [He] failed to qualify before the Medical Board of the police on the ground that he had an ‘athletic heart’. 1929E. Bowen Joining Charles 125 Cottesby the cow-herd, a greyish-faced man, had ‘a heart’. 1965‘W. Haggard’ Hard Sell i. 4 He's got a heart, by the way, and I'm afraid this might finish him. 1971Current Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) VI. 6 Slow down or you'll give me a heart.
2. Considered as the centre of vital functions: the seat of life; the vital part or principle; hence in some phrases = life. Obs. or arch.
c825Vesp. Psalter xxi[i]. 27 Herᵹað dryhten ða soecað hine leofað heorte heara in weoruld weorulde. a1325Prose Psalter ciii[i]. 15 And wyn glade mannes hert. 1382Wyclif Ps. ci[i]. 5, I am smyten as heiȝ, and myn herte driede. 1382― Gen. xviii. 5, I shal sett a morsel of breed, and ȝoure herte be coumfortid. 1535Coverdale Ibid., A morsell of bred, to comforte youre hertes withall. 1548Hall Chron., Edw. IV, 213 Commaundyng, upon pein of the harte, that no man should once passe the sea with hym. c1601Sir C. Hatton in Hatton Corr. (1878) 2 Beecause hee hath nothinge deerer then his harte. 1611Bible Ps. civ. 15 Bread which strengtheneth man's heart. a1618Raleigh Lett. (1651) 109 That the King (though I were not pardoned) had granted my heart under the Great Seal. 1743Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 97 Desiring no more than to go off Heart in Hand from this Place to the Southward. [1871Speaker's Comment. Gen. xviii. 5 The heart considered as the centre of vital functions, is put by the Hebrews for the life itself. To support the heart therefore is to refresh the whole vital powers and functions.]
3. transf.
a. The region of the heart; breast, bosom.
c1450Holland Howlat 477 He..it hyng About his hals full hende, and on his awne hart. 1535Coverd. Exod. xxviii. 29 Thus shall Aaron beare the names in y⊇ brestlappe of iudgment vpon his hert. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. vi. 26 He..ever held his hand upon his hart. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. v. 192 Lay hand on heart, aduise. 1611Bible Exod. xxviii. 30 The Urim and the Thummim..shall bee vpon Aarons heart, when he goeth in before the Lord. 1717Pope Eloïsa 123 Let me..Pant on thy lip, and to thy heart be press'd. 1887H. S. Cunningham Cœruleans II. 226 He pressed her to his heart.
b. Hence in fig. expressions.
1886Dowden Shelley I. vi. 280 Godwin..had indeed taken the young disciple to his heart. 1887Edna Lyall Knt.-Errant xviii. 162 He hugged his old conviction to his heart.
4. The stomach. Obs. or dial. Chiefly in phr. next the heart: on an empty stomach, fasting (obs. or dial.). Cf. Fr. avoir mal au cœur: to be sick (bilious).
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. (1877) 359 (D.) A newe founde diete, to drink wine in the morning nexte the harte. 1589Cogan Haven Health (1636) 189, I have knowne some maidens to drinke vinegar next their heart to abate their colour. 1647R. Stapylton Juvenal vi. 637 (D.) The Romans held it ominous to see a Blackamoore next their hearts in a morning. 1674R. Godfrey Inj. & Ab. Physic 116 So much is it the mode still to call the Stomach the Heart, that people frequently say their Hearts were at their Mouths, when on a sudden fright or surprisal their Stomach's have been mov'd. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Heart, the stomach. ‘A pain at the heart’ means the stomach-ache.
** As the seat of feeling, understanding, and thought.
5. a. = mind, in the widest sense, including the functions of feeling, volition, and intellect.
c825Vesp. Psalter lxxx. 13 [lxxxi. 12] Ne forleort hie efter lustum heortan heara. c1000Ags. Gosp. Luke ii. 51 His modor ᵹeheold ealle þas word, on hyre heortan smeaᵹende. c1175Lamb. Hom. 25 He seið mið þa muðe þet nis naut in his heorte. a1225Leg. Kath. 2142 Do nu þenne hihendliche þat tu hauest on heorte. 1390Gower Conf. II. 225 His hert and tunge must accorde. 1558Knox First Blast (Arb.) 36 A principle..depelie printed in the hart of man. 1607Shakes. Cor. iii. i. 257 His Heart's his Mouth; What his Brest forges, that his Tongue must vent. 1611Bible 1 Kings viii. 18 Thou diddest well that it was in thine heart. 1635Sanderson Serm. II. 306 The heart..is..very often in Scripture..taken more largely, so as to comprehend the whole soul, in all its faculties, as well the apprehensive as the appetitive; and consequently taketh in the thoughts, as well as the desires, of the soul. 1729Butler Serm., Love Neighbour Wks. 1874 II. 159 The whole system, as I may speak, of affections (including rationality), which constitute the heart, as this word is used in Scripture and on moral subjects. 1886H. Conway Living or Dead II. ix. 180 Capable of any villainy that the heart of man could devise.
b. In this relation spoken of as having ears, eyes, etc., meaning those faculties of the mind, understanding, or emotional nature, that have some analogy to these bodily organs. Cf. heart of heart(s.
c1025Rule St. Benet (Logeman) 1 Ahyld eare heortan þinre. c1200Ormin 3899 Wiþþ innwarrd heorrtess tunge. c1230Hali Meid. 3 Opene to vnderstonde þe ehne of þin heorte. c1400Apol. Loll. 36 Wiþ þe eeris and een of his hert, he schuld vnderstond hem. 1604Act 1 Jas. I, c. 1 Vpon the knees of our hearts to agnize our most constant faith, obedience and loyaltie to your Maiestie. 1620Sir T. Matthews tr. St. Augustine's Confess. i. v, Behould the eares of my hart, are set before thee; open thou them, O Lord. 1735–8Bolingbroke On Parties 13 The Parliament acknowledged, on the Knees of their Hearts (such was the Cant of the Age) the indubitable Right, by which..the Crown descended to Him.
6. a. The seat of one's inmost thoughts and secret feelings; one's inmost being; the depths of the soul; the soul, the spirit.
c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xii. 34 Soþlice of þære heortan willan se muþ spicþ. a1300Cursor M. 43 Vr dedis fro vr hert tas rote. 1382Wyclif Matt. xii. 34 Sothely the mouth spekith of the grete plente of the herte. 1508Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 162, I sall a ragment reveil fra [the] rute of my hert. 1548–9(Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer Communion, Vnto whom all hartes bee open. 1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Contre son cueur, dissemblingly, or against his heart. 1611Bible Judg. v. 16 For the diuisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. 1627–8Feltham Resolves (1636) 366 Rather than have poured out his heart with such indiscretion. 1794Mann in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 440 Excuse my laying my heart open to you and exposing my feelings as they are. 1886Baring-Gould Crt. Royal xviii. I. 283, I like you to speak out of your heart freshly what you think.
b. double heart, two hearts: phrases indicating duplicity or insincerity; see double a. 5, and cf. 51 b.
1382Wyclif 1 Chron. xii. 33 Fyfty thousand camen in to help, not in double hert. 1594T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. Ep. to Rdr. 4 Men of two harts, or of a double heart. 1611[see 51 b].
7. Intent, will, purpose, inclination, desire. Obs. exc. in phr. after one's own heart.
c825Vesp. Psalter xix. (xx.) 4 Selle ðe dryhten efter heortan ðinre. c1175Lamb. Hom. 3 Heo urnen on-ȝein him..mid godere heorte and summe mid ufele þeonke. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 10/330 Muche aȝein heore heorte it was. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 437 He hadde þe money aȝenst herte. c1470Henry Wallace i. 386 Waith suld be delt, in all place, with fre hart. c1485Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 47 Now have I told yow my hart. 1535Coverdale 1 Sam. xiii. 14 The Lorde hath soughte him out a man after his owne hert. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 200 Mawgre the heart and minde of all his Barons. 1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xv. v. (1886) 330 They..may be forced to yeeld in spight of their harts. 1883M. W. Hungerford Rossmoyne I. vi. 120, I am going to give you a mission after your own heart.
†8. Disposition, temperament, character. Obs.
a1225Ancr. R. 384 Auh swote and schir heorte is god to alle þinges. 1307Elegy Edw. 1, i, Alle that beoth of huerte trewe. 1402Hoccleve Let. of Cupid 36 Fful herd yt is to know a manys hert. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon ix. 205 They had the herte so fell that they wolde take none amendes. 1548Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 40 To whom at the fyrst he shewed his good hart. 1599Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 324 In faith Lady you haue a merry heart. 1603― Meas. for M. v. i. 389 Not changing heart with habit. 1611Bible Ecclus. iii. 27 An obstinate heart shall be laden with sorrowes.
9. a. The seat of the emotions generally; the emotional nature, as distinguished from the intellectual nature placed in the head.
In earlier use often referring to the physical organ; in later mostly fig.
Beowulf (Z.) 2463 Heortan sorᵹe. c1050Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia VIII. 317 Him mæᵹ beon þe glædre his heorte. c1275Passion Our Lord 6 in O.E. Misc. 37 Heore heorten weren so colde. c1350Leg. Rood (1871) 88 Vp he rase with hert ful light. 1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) i. iii. (1859) 4 The syght..gladyd moche my harte. 1548Latimer Ploughers (Arb.) 20 Breakynge their stonie hertes. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. iii. ii. 64 Tell me where is fancie bred, Or in the heart, or in the head. c1600― Sonn. xlvi. 1 Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war How to divide the conquest of thy sight. a1700Dryden tr. Ovid's Art Love i. Wks. 1808 XII. 252 Tears will pierce a heart of adamant. 1735Pope Ep. Lady 250 To raise the Thought, and touch the Heart be thine! 1784Cowper Tiroc. 897 One comfort yet shall cheer thine aged heart. 1824Scott St. Ronan's xvi, With zeal honourable to his heart and head. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset II. l. 71 Her heart was too full to speak. 1884Ouida P'cess Napraxine vi. (1886) 67 In her it was a thirst of the mind, in him it was a hunger of the heart. 1886H. Conway Living or Dead II. ix. 193 If the man had a soft place in his heart I felt sure I was finding it.
†b. The feeling or sentiment which one has in regard to a thing. Obs.
1596Shakes. Merch. V. i. ii. 141 If I could bid the fift welcome with so good heart as I can bid the other foure farewell, I should be glad of his approach. 1603Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 356 Above others, his heart was greatest against the Hungarians.
10. a. More particularly, The seat of love or affection, as in many fig. phrases: to give, lose one's heart (to), to have, obtain, gain a person's heart. Hence = Affection, love, devotion. near, nearest, one's heart, close or closest to one's affection.
c1175Lamb. Hom. 5 We sulen habben ure heorte and habben godne ileafe to ure drihten. 1297R. Glouc. (1724) 24 Kyng Locryne's herte was al clene vp hire y went..[He] thoȝte hire to spouse, so ys herte to hire droȝ. c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 253 Sir Edward..His herte gaf tille dame Blanche, if hir wille wer þerto. 1382Wyclif Prov. xxiii. 26 Gif, sone myn, thin herte to me. c1450Merlin 24 So hadde Vortiger the hertys of the peple. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. xii. 40 Thrise happy man..Possessed of his Ladies hart and hand. 1610Shakes. Temp. iii. i. 65 The verie instant that I saw you, did My heart flie to your seruice. 1676Wycherley Pl. Dealer ii. i. (1735) 43, I have an Ambition..of losing my Heart before such a fair Enemy. 1711Addison Spect. No. 18 ⁋4 The Lover..gained the Heart of his Princess. 1884Edna Lyall We Two xxv, Lady Caroline will quite lose her heart to you. 1886Baring-Gould Crt. Royal xxxiii. II. 195 In matters of the heart..I am confused. 1887Edna Lyall Knt.-Errant ix. 69 She..won all hearts. 1888Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men I. Pref. 28 Important for the cause which was nearest to his heart.
b. Kindly feeling; cordiality, heartiness. rare.
a1656Bp. Hall Life in Sat. (1824) p. lv, His welcome to Waltham could not but want much of his heart without me. 1827Scott Jrnl. 7 Mar., I must say, too, there was a heart,—a kindly feeling prevailed over the party.
c. Susceptibility to the higher emotions; sensibility or tenderness for others; feeling. (Often qualified by indef. article or no.)
1735Pope Ep. Lady 159 With ev'ry pleasing, ev'ry prudent part, Say, what can Chloe want?—She wants a Heart. 1839C. L. H. Papendiek Crt. Time Q. Charlotte (1887) II. 55 A total want of heart or filial affection. a1845Hood Lady's Dream xvi, But evil is wrought by want of Thought, As well as want of Heart! 1847Tennyson Princ. vi. 218 Our Ida has a heart. 1886Mrs. Alexander By Woman's Wit II. viii. 266 Which would have been pain and humiliation to a woman of real heart and delicacy.
d. to have a heart (colloq.), to be merciful. Freq. in imp.: come off it, be reasonable, show some pity!
1917Wodehouse & Bolton (play title) Have a heart. 1928Observer 1 Jan. 4 We only sigh for old delights, and in homely phrase beseech him..to ‘have a heart’. 1936P. Bottome Level Crossing xviii. 225 ‘Have a heart!’ Nelly told her crossly. 1950W. Stevens Let. 28 June (1967) 683 If you use the things..I shall have to go out and drown myself... Have a heart. 1967J. B. Priestley It's Old Country xix. 209 ‘You haven't made any plans for him, have you?’ ‘How could I?.. Have a heart!’ 1970New Yorker 12 Sept. 50/3 Spare us a reefer, beautiful. Have a heart.
11. a. The seat of courage; hence, Courage, spirit. Especially in to pluck up heart, gather heart, keep (up) heart, lose heart. See also 48, 49, to have the heart, take h.
c825Vesp. Psalter cxi[i]. 8 Getrymed is heorte his. a1000Cædmon's Gen. 2348 (Gr.) Heortan strange. c1250Gen. & Ex. 3253 On and on kin, als herte hem cam, ðat folc ilc in his weiȝe nam. 1375Barbour Bruce i. 28 King Robert..That hardy wes off hart and hand. 1390Gower Conf. II. 12 He hath the sore, which no man heleth, The whiche is cleped lacke of herte. a1400–50Alexander 470 ‘Nay’, quod þe comly kyng ‘cache vp þine hert’. 1450W. Somner in Four C. Eng. Lett. 4 Thanne his herte faylyd him. 1481Caxton Godfrey cxlix. 221 They ran on them with grete herte, and slewe them som of them. 1530Palsgr. 661/2 Plucke up thy herte, man, thou shalte be set at large to morowe. 1596Spenser State Irel. (Globe) 659 To give harte and encouradgement to all such bold rebells. 1607Shakes. Cor. ii. iii. 212 Why, had your Bodyes No heart among you? a1700Dryden Hector & Androm. 48 Thy dauntless heart..will urge thee to thy fate. 1776Burke Corr. (1844) II. 107 You have, however, heart to the last. 1850Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) I. x. 435 The Germans lost heart. 1863Mrs. Gaskell Sylvia's L. (1877) 247 Now, good-by..and keep a good heart. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. I. v. 376 æthelred seems to have plucked up a little heart. 1885Sat. Rev. 24 Jan. 103/2 Its younger members, if brainless, are not without heart and pluck. 1886F. L. Shaw Col. Cheswick's Camp. II. i. 14 You put heart into me again.
b. The source of ardour, enthusiasm, or energy. So to have one's heart in, put one's h. into (a thing).
1780F. Burney Lett. 22 Jan., I have so little heart in the affair, that I have now again quite dropped it. 1853Lytton My Novel i. xii, His whole heart was in the game. 1886Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Paston Carew I. x. 181 A man who puts his heart into all he does.
12. The seat of the mental or intellectual faculties. Often = understanding, intellect, mind, and (less commonly) memory. arch. exc. in phrase by heart: see 32.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. John xii. 40 Ofblindade eᵹo hiora & onstiðade hiora hearta þæte ne ᵹeseað mið eᵹum & ongeattað mið hearta. c1175Lamb. Hom. 121 Þe deofel ablende heore heortan þet heo ne cunnan icnawen ure helend. a1200Moral Ode 285 Ne mai non heorte it þenche, ne no tunge ne can telle. c1300Beket 1199 His hurte him ȝaf that hit was he. 1415Rolls of Parlt. IV. 85/1 As free mak I the, as hert may thynk, or eygh may see. 1576Gascoigne Steele Gl. (Arb.) 50 And me they found..Whose harmelesse hart, perceivde not their deceipt. 1602Shakes. Ham. i. v. 121 Would heart of man once think it? 1611Bible Hosea vii. 11 Ephraim is like a silly dove without heart [1885 R.V. understanding]. ― Luke xxiv. 25 O fooles, and slow of heart to beleeue all that the Prophets haue spoken.
13. The moral sense, conscience. Now only in phrase my (his, etc.) heart smote me (him, etc.).
1382Wyclif 2 Sam. xxiv. 10 Forsothe the herte of Dauid smoot hym, aftir that the puple is noumbred. 1382― 1 John iii. 20 For if oure herte shal reproue us, God is more than oure herte. a1699A. Halkett Autobiog. (1875) 3 That my owne Hart cannott challenge mee.
*** Put for the person.
14. a. Used as a term of endearment, often qualified by dear, sweet (see sweetheart), etc.; chiefly in addressing a person.
c1305St. Kenelm 142 in E.E.P. (1862) 51 Allas, heo seide..Þat mie child, mie swete hurte, scholde such þing bitide. c1350Will. Palerne 1649 Whi so, mi dere hert? Ibid. 1655 Mi hony, mi hert, al hol þou me makest. c1374Chaucer Compl. Mars 138 Alas whan shall I mete yow, herte dere? c1440Partonope 792 As ye byn hir hert swete. 1494Will of Combe (Somerset Ho.), My last derest hart & lady. c1500Melusine xlv. 318 Adieu, myn herte, & al my joye. a1553Udall Royster D. i. iii. (Arb.) 25 Howe dothe sweete Custance, my heart of gold, tell me how? 1676Beale Pocket-bk. in H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) III. 139 My dear heart and self and son Charles saw at Mr. Walton's the lady Carnarvon's picture. 1677Epist. to Yng. Maidens, Sweet Hearts..I have..composed this little Book, as a Rich Storehouse for you. 1719Hamilton Ep. to Ramsay 24 July x, Do not mistake me, dearest heart. 1855Tennyson Maud i. xviii. viii, Dear heart, I feel with thee the drowsy spell.
†b. dear heart: a boon companion. Obs.
1663Dryden Wild Gallant i. i, He's one of your Dear Hearts, a debauchee. Ibid. ii. i, That you were one of the errantest Cowards in Christendom, though you went for one of the dear Hearts.
15. a. As a term of appreciation or commendation: Man of courage or spirit. Often in nautical language: cf. hearty C. 2.
c1500Melusine xxi. 141 Whan the noble hertes herde hym saye thoo wordes they held it to grete wysedome of hym. 1600Nashe Summer's Last Will Wks. (1883–4) VI. 104 What cheere, what cheere, my hearts? 1610Shakes. Temp. i. i. 6 Heigh my hearts, cheerely, cheerely my harts. 1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. xiii. 61 Courage my hearts for a fresh charge. 1684Meriton Praise Yorksh. Ale (1697) 14 Come here my Hearts, Said he. 1780Cowper Table T. 23 History..Tells of a few stout hearts that fought and died. a1845Hood Storm iv, Come, my hearts, be stout and bold. 1863Kingsley Water-Bab. vii, They were all true English hearts; and they came to their end like good knights-errant.
b. Hearts of Steel: the name of an agrarian organization formed by the Protestant tenants in Ulster in 1770.
1772Petition in Froude Irel. 18th C. v. ii. (1881) II. 133 It is not wanton folly that prompts us to be Hearts of Steel, but the weight of oppression. 1780A. Young Tour Irel. I. 217 The hearts of steel lasted 3 years; began in 1770 against rents and tythes. 1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 468 The insurgent banditti of Tories, Hearts of Steel, Peep-o'day Boys, White Boys, etc. 1882Lecky Eng. in 18th C. IV. 393 In the North the disturbances of the Hearts of Steel had just broken out.
†16. As a term of compassion: poor heart! (cf. poor soul, poor body). Obs.
1599Shakes. Hen. V, ii. i. 123 A poore heart, hee is so shak'd of a burning quotidian Tertian. 1668Pepys Diary 27 Dec., My wife and I fell out a little..she cried, poor heart! which I was troubled for. 1682Bunyan Holy War (Cassell) 91 Wherefore the town of Mansoul (poor hearts!) understood him not. 1749Fielding Tom Jones xi. ii, The poor little heart looked so piteous, when she sat down.
**** Something having a central position.
17. a. The innermost or central part of anything; the centre, middle.
a1310in Wright Lyric P. viii. 31 That ys in heovene hert in-hyde. a1325Prose Psalter xlv[i]. 2 Þe mounteins shul be born in-to þe hert of þe see. 1530Palsgr. 34 The herte of Fraunce. 1581Mulcaster Positions xl. (1887) 228 In the hart of a great towne. 1658Cokaine To W. Dugdale Poems 112 Our Warwick-shire the Heart of England is. 1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 71 A bore through the heart or centre of the earth. 1722De Foe Plague (1884) 30 The Heart of the City. 1855C. Brontë Villette vi. 44, I got into the heart of city life. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Europe v, We soon found ourselves in the very heart of the glacier.
b. The part of any time or season when its character becomes most intense (usually the middle part); the height, depth.
1764Mem. G. Psalmanazar 168 To send me away in the heart of a severe winter. 1844Disraeli Coningsby viii. i, It was the heart of the London season.
18. esp. A central part of distinct conformation or character, as
a. The pith of wood, the white tender part of a cabbage or the like, the core of an apple, etc., the receptacle or other central part of a flower;
b. The central strand of a hawser-laid rope, round which the other strands are twisted;
c. The central solid portion or core of a twisted column (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875).
1578Lyte Dodoens iii. lxi. 402 The Roote..hauing in the middle a little white, the whiche men call the Harte of Osmunde. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. i. iii. 102 A goodly apple rotten at the heart. 1681W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 715 The heart or pith of a tree, medulla. 1707Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 45 A Flower is compos'd of..the Cup..the Leaves, and the Heart. 1841Penny Cycl. XX. 155/2 Ropes formed in the most common manner, with three strands, do not require a heart, or central strand. 1866Treas. Bot. 166/1 Cabbage..eaten in a young state..before the heart has become firm and hard. Ibid. 166/2 The heart, or middle part of the plant [Large-ribbed Cabbage] has..been found very delicate. 1875Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. x. (ed. 2) 360 Shroud-laid rope, 4 strands and a heart.
19. a. spec. The solid central part of a tree without sap or alburnum. Cf. heartwood.
c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) ix. 35 Treesse..failed in þaire hertes and become holle within. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §126 Get the stakes of the hert of oke. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 103 The Elme..(as it is all hart) it maketh good tymber. 1659Willsford Scales Comm., Archit. 16, 3 kinds, viz. heart of Oak, sap and Deal lath. 1760New Song in Universal Mag. Mar. 152 Heart of oak are our ships, heart of oak are our men.
b. Hence fig. heart of oak: a stout, courageous spirit; a man of courage or valour; a man of sterling quality, capable of resistance or endurance. (Cf. F. cœur d'or; also sense 15.) Also attrib.
1609Old Meg of Herefordsh. (N.), Yonkers that have hearts of oake at fourescore yeares. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 221 He was..a heart of oke, and a pillar of the Land. 1760[see 19]. 1832Tennyson Buonaparte 1 He thought to quell the stubborn hearts of oak. 1870Dickens E. Drood xii, A nation of hearts of oak. 1895Q. Rev. Oct. 320 Thrashers, Whiteboys, Heart-of-Oak-boys..and other off⁓spring of agrarian and political discontent.
***** The vital part or principle.
20. The vital, essential, or efficacious part; essence. (Often combined with other notions.)
c1533Latimer Serm. & Rem. (1845) 237 God looketh not to the work of praying, but to the heart of the prayer. 1598Shakes. Merry W. ii. ii. 233 Now (Sir John) here is the heart of my purpose. 1653Baxter Meth. Peace Consc. 44 The Heart of saving faith is this Acceptance of Christ. 1840Mrs. Browning Drama of Exile Poems 1844 I. 52 And from the top of sense, looked over sense, To the significance and heart of things. 1871Darwin Life & Lett. (1887) III. 147 Mr. Huxley's unrivalled power in tearing the heart out of a book. 1889Jessopp Coming of Friars iii. 122 The church of a monastery was the heart of the place.
21. a. Of land, etc.: Strength, fertility; capacity to produce or effect what is required of it; ‘proof’ (of grass, etc.). in (good, strong, etc.) heart: in prime condition. out of heart: in poor condition, unproductive.
1573Tusser Husb. xix. (1878) 49 Land out of hart, Makes thistles a number foorthwith to vpstart. 1594Plat Jewell-ho. i. 59 A fruitfull molde, and such as giueth hart vnto the earth. 1620Markham Farew. Husb. ii. xi. (1668) 49 This..shall maintain and keep the earth in good heart. 1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 139 To Till it forth of heart is just as if you work an Ox off his legs. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 108 That the spent Earth may gather heart again. 1704Swift Batt. Bks. Misc. (1711) 231 Their Horses large, but extreamely out of Case and Heart. 1727–51Chambers Cycl. s.v. Hops, If the hops be in good heart, manuring and pruning is most adviseable. 1805Forsyth Beauties Scotl. I. 263 The soil being kept in heart, or rich..by superior agriculture. 1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 212 The produce of upland hay varies according to the season, the heart, and condition, the land may be in. 1856Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XVII. ii. 528 Such grass affords, as the farmers say, ‘no heart’—‘no proof’ in it. 1895W. Rye Ibid. Mar. 5 In 1787 the heart of the land was so improved that Coke began to sow wheat.
b. Hence, generally, in heart: in good or sound condition.
1626Bacon Sylva §305 The Lees..keepe the Drinke in Heart, and make it lasting. 1703Art & Myst. Vintners 11 The Lee, tho' it makes the Liquor turbid, doth yet keep the Wine in heart.
22. The best, choicest, or most important part.
1589Cogan Haven Health cxcv. (1636) 179 Creame..is indeed the very head or heart of Milke. 1603Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 528 To deliver into his power the castle with the heart of the citizens.
****** Something of the shape of a heart.
23. A figure or representation of the human heart; esp. a conventionalized symmetrical figure formed of two similar curves meeting in a point at one end and a cusp at the other. Also, an object, as a jewel or ornament, in the shape of a heart.
1463Bury Wills (Camden) 35 The seid broche herte of gold to be hange, naylyd, and festnyd vpon the shryne. 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. ii. 107, I tooke a costly Iewell from my necke, A Hart it was bound in with Diamonds. 1720Mrs. Manley Power of Love i. (1741) 20 The Justs ended with his receiving a Heart of Diamonds from the Dutchess. 1766Porny Heraldry (1787) 150 A Man's Heart Gules, within two equilateral triangles braced Sable. 1828–40Berry Encycl. Her., Hearts are..met with in coat-armour, borne in several ways. 1834L. Ritchie Wand. by Seine 104 At the foot of the tomb was another heart in white marble.
24. a. A playing card bearing one or more conventionalized figures of a heart; one of the suit marked with such figures; pl. the suit of such cards.
1529Latimer 1st Serm. on Card (1886) 27 Now turn up your trump, your heart (hearts is trump, as I said before), and cast your trump, your heart, on this card. 1599Hist. Pope Joan A j b in Singer Hist. Cards 259 Like the ace of hearts at Mawe. 1648Herrick Hesper., Oberon's Palace (1869) 177 With peeps of hearts, of club and spade. 1712–14Pope Rape Lock iii. 79 Clubs, diamonds, hearts, in wild disorder seen. Mod. I couldn't follow suit; I hadn't got a heart.
b. Hearts, a card-game for three or four players, similar in principle to whist but without partners or a trump suit: the object of the game is to avoid taking a trick containing a Heart or the Queen of Spades.
1886‘The Major’ (title) The game of hearts. Rules of the game. How to play hearts. 1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 361/1 Invitation Cards... At Home, Progressive Hearts ― o'clock. R.S.V.P. 1930W. S. Maugham Writer's Notebk. (1949) 231 In the evening the guests collect and play hearts for infinitesimal sums. 1943‘C. Dickson’ She died a Lady viii. 67 You don't call playing bridge or hearts on Saturday night a very Bohemian sort of life, do you? 1946A. Christie Hollow viii. 75 Do you think Hearts or Bridge or Rummy? 1959J. D. Salinger in New Yorker 6 June 101 At all card games, without exception—Go Fish, poker, cassino, hearts, old maid..—he was absolutely intolerable.
†25. The sole of a horse's foot. Obs.
1523Fitzherb. Husb. §100 Morfounde..appereth vnder the houe in the hert of the fote. 1737Bracken Farriery Impr. (1757) II. 210 He has got a Prick thro' the Sole or Heart of the Foot (as it is called).
26. Naut. A triangular wooden block pierced with one large hole through which a lanyard is reeved, used for extending the stays; a kind of dead-eye.
1769Falconer Dict. Marine, Heart, a peculiar sort of dead-eye, somewhat resembling the shape of a heart..only furnished with one large hole in the middle, whereas the common dead-eyes have always three holes. 1804A. Duncan Mariner's Chron. Pref. 17. 1882 Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 37 Lanyards, rove through iron-bound hearts.
27. Mach. A heart-shaped wheel or cam used for converting a rotary into a reciprocating motion.
1875in Knight Dict. Mech.
28. Short for heart-shell (see 56).
1750R. Pococke Trav. (1888) 153, I found in the Quarries several of those bivalve petrifyed shells, call'd hearts.
29. Short for heart-net (see 56).
30. In names of trees and plants.
black-heart, white-heart, varieties of cultivated Cherry (see black a. 19, white a.). bleeding-heart (see bleeding ppl. a. 5). floating heart, an American name for Limnanthemum (Treas Bot. 1866).
1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 219 Black Cherry, Morellos, Black Heart, all good. 1803J. Abercrombie Ev. Man his own Gardener (ed. 17) 674/1 Cherries..White heart, Black heart, Bleeding heart.
II. Phrases.
* With governing preposition.
31. at heart. In one's inmost thoughts or feelings; in one's actual character or disposition; inwardly, secretly; at bottom; in reality.
1735Pope Ep. Lady 216 But every Woman is at heart a Rake. 1780Cowper Table T. 191 Patriots, who love good places at their hearts. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 222 It was certain that the King at heart preferred the Church⁓men to the Puritans. 1855Ibid. xii. III. 153 Rice was charged to tell James that Mountjoy was a traitor at heart. 1855Prescott Philip II, ii. viii. (1857) 296 One cannot doubt that Philip was at heart an inquisitor.
32. by heart. In the memory; from memory; by rote; so as to be able to repeat or write out correctly what has been learnt. Cf. F. par cœur.
c1374Chaucer Troylus v. 1494 She told ek al þe prophesies by herte. 1528Gardiner in Pocock Rec. Ref. I. l. 103 [We] rehearsed by heart the chapter Veniens. 1573–80Baret Alv. H 202 To learne by harte, or without booke..To say by harte. 1645Fuller Good Th. in Bad T. (1841) 15, I had said them [prayers] rather by heart than with my heart. 1682Wheler Journ. Greece v. 367 The Tragedians gat their Plays by heart. 1709Prior Hans Carvel 13 Whole Tragedies she had by Heart. 1739Chesterfield Lett. (1792) I. xliii. 138 Pray get these verses by heart against the time I see you. 1885Law Times LXXIX. 339/2 Few lawyers know by heart the complicated statutes relating to Church matters.
†33. for one's heart. For one's life; to save one's life. See for prep. A. 9 c. Obs.
34. from one's heart. Out of the depths of one's soul; with the sincerest or deepest feeling.
1594T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 93 And wee know..that hee speakes from his heart. 1651Sir E. Nicholas in N. Papers (Camden) I. 249, I wish from my hart Mr. Attorney had come away. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. iii. vi. (1845) 159 In such kind of Sermons, there is little spoken, either from the Heart, or to the Heart. 1840Carlyle Heroes ii. (1858) 234 If a book come from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts.
35. in{ddd}heart.
a. in (one's) heart: in one's inmost thoughts or feelings; inwardly; secretly; at heart.
c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxiv. 48 Ᵹyf se yfela þeowa ðencþ on hys heortan and cwyþ, min hlafurd uferað hys cyme. a1175Cott. Hom. 219 [He] cweð an his herto, þat he wolde and eaðe mihte bien his sceoppende ȝelic. a1300Cursor M. 2959 (Gött.) Abraham syhid in his hert ful sare. a1325Prose Psalter lii[i]. 1 Þe vnwys seid in his hert, God nis nouȝt. 1390Gower Conf. I. 64 Many one Which speketh of Peter and of John And thenketh Judas in his herte. 1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI 127 b, Whiche thyng in his harte, he moste coveted and desired. 1611Bible Transl. Pref. 2 They..wish in their heart the Temple had neuer bene built. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 105 Julian had..pretended to abhor idolatry, while in heart an idolater.
†b. in all one's heart (transl. L. in toto corde): with all one's heart (39 a). Obs.
c825Vesp. Psalter ix 1 Ic ondetto ðe dryhten in alre heortan minre. 1382Wyclif Ibid., I shal knoulechen to thee, Lord, in al myn herte. 1382― Jer. xxiv. 7 Thei shal turne aȝeen to me in al ther herte.
c. in heart: in good spirits. So in phr. to put in (or into) heart: to restore to good spirits.
1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. v. 78 Well, Petruchio, this has put me in heart. 1614Raleigh Hist. World II. v. iii. §15. 442 His Armie must have somewhat to keep it in heart. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. v, Whether they were still in heart to fight. 1832H. Martineau Ella of Gar. viii. 100 To put you in heart again.
d. In good condition: see 21.
36. near, next one's heart: see 10, 4.
†37. of (all one's) heart. With all one's heart; sincerely, earnestly. Obs. (Cf. F. de tout mon cœur.)
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 431 To holde religioun of Crist and love hym of hert siþ..Cristis religioun stondiþ in love of God of al our herte. c1400Apol. Loll. 47, I cnowlech of mowþ & hert, me to hold þe same feiþ of þe sacrament of þe Lordis bord.
38. out of heart.
a. In low spirits; discouraged, disheartened.
1586J. Hooker Girald. Irel. viii. in Holinshed II. 9/2 Perceuung them to be somewhat dismaied and out of heart. 1690W. Walker Idiomat. Anglo-Lat. 234 After he had lost his boy, he grew quite out of heart. 1711tr. Werenfels' Disc. Logomachys 143 Pray, dear Good Sir, don't be out of Patience, or out of Heart. 1882Tennyson Promise of May iii. Wks. (1894) 300/1 What is it Has put you out of heart? 1891Spectator 11 Apr. 497 The Regent is evidently out of heart.
b. In poor condition: see 21.
39. with{ddd}heart.
a. with (OE. mid) all one's heart, with one's whole heart, † with heart: with great sincerity, earnestness, or devotion; now chiefly in weakened sense, with the utmost goodwill or pleasure.
971Blickl. Hom. 13 Herede heo hine..mid ealre heortan. c1000ælfric Hom. I. 420 Ᵹelyfst ðu mid ealre heortan? c1220Bestiary 171 To helden wit herte ðe bodes of holi k[i]rke. c1470Henry Wallace iv. 20 He luffyt him with hart and all hys mycht. 1509Hawes Past. Pleas. xxvii. xxxix, With all my herte I wyll, quod he, accepte Hym to my servyce. 1535Coverdale Jer. xxiv. 7 They shal returne vnto me with their whole herte. 1598Shakes. Merry W. i. i. 86, I thank you alwaies with my heart, la: with my heart. 1606― Tr. & Cr. iii. iii. 294 God buy you with all my heart. 1653Walton Angler ii. 44 Take one with all my heart. 1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. vii. 60 That I will promise you, with all my heart.
b. with a heart and a half: with great pleasure, willingly. with half a heart: half-heartedly, with divided affection or enthusiasm.
1636Massinger Gt. Dk. Florence iv. ii, Such junkets come not every day. Once more to you With a heart and a half, i faith. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. III 587 Some naval officers..though they served the new government, served it sullenly and with half a heart. 1885Tennyson Let. to S. Cox 5 Aug., I thank you, as the Irishman says, ‘with a heart and a half’, for your volume of Expositions.
** With verb and preposition.
40. find in one's heart. To feel inclined or willing; to prevail upon oneself (to do something): now chiefly in negative and interrogative sentences.
c1440[see find v. 10 c]. 1530Palsgr. 687/1 Thoughe you can nat fynde in your herte to honour hym for his owne sake. 1638F. Junius Paint. of Ancients 316 Yet can these men finde in their hearts to boast. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. viii, [One] that can find in his Heart to destroy Armies, and ruine Provinces. 1834M. Scott Cruise Midge vii. 122 Neither of us could find it in our hearts to speak. 1883E. Blackwell Booth iv. 45 They could hardly find in their heart to disturb its peaceful surface.
41. a. have at heart. To have as an object in which one is deeply interested.
1711Steele Spect. No. 20 ⁋1 The Correction of Impudence is what I have very much at Heart. 1712Addison Italy Wks. 1721 II. 138 The Pope has this design extremely at his heart. 1850Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) I. v. 199 The Romans had no object more at heart than to obtain possession of this key to Gaul. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 206 A matter which we have very much at heart.
b. So, conversely, to be at the heart of.
1824Scott St. Ronan's iii, The interests of the establishment being very much at the heart of this honourable council.
42. lay to heart. To take into one's serious consideration, as a thing to be kept carefully in mind; to think seriously about; to be deeply affected by or concerned about (a thing); rarely, to impress it seriously upon another.
1602Dekker Satirom. Wks. 1873 I. 234 Captaine, I'm sorry that you lay this wrong so close unto your heart. 1605Shakes. Macb. i. v. 15 Lay it to thy heart, and fare⁓well. 1611Bible Mal. ii. 2 If yee will not lay it to heart, to giue glory vnto my name. 1802Beddoes Hygëia II. v. 21 Many writers..have laid it to the heart of mothers not to commit to hirelings the task of nurse. 1853Trench Proverbs 141 It contains..a lesson which I should do wisely and well at this present time to lay to heart. 1884Century Mag. Oct. 942/2 Do not lay it to heart, my child.
†43. put or set to or on the heart: earlier equivalents of prec. Obs.
1382Wyclif Mal. ii. 2 Ȝif ȝe woln not putte on the herte, that ȝe ȝeve glorie to my name. c1400Apol. Loll. 24 If ȝe wil not sett to þe hert to ȝef glory to my name. Ibid. 34 Son of man, putt to hert, and see wiþ þin een..alle þings þat I spek to þe.
44. take to heart. To take seriously; to be much affected by; to grieve over; † to be zealous, solicitous, or ardent about (obs.).
a1300Cursor M. 24010 Þat mast i tok til hert. 1535Coverdale Eccl. vii. 2 There is the ende of all men, and he that is lyuinge taketh it to herte. 1586J. Hooker Girald. Irel. in Holinshed (1808) VI. 299 Whose death he is said to haue taken greatlie to hart. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. vii. (1651) 352 But why shouldst thou take thy neglect, thy canvass so to heart? a1626Bacon (J.), If he would take the business to heart, and deal in it effectually, it would succeed well. a1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. viii. §257 It was very vehemently pressed by many persons..and amongst those who took it most to heart, sir John Stawel was the chief. 1822Lamb Elia Ser. i. Dream Children, Though I did not cry and take it to heart as some do..yet I missed him all day long. 1865Trollope Belton Est. vi. 60 She had no idea when she was refusing him that he would have taken it to heart as he had done.
*** With governing verb.
45. break the heart of.
a. To kill, crush, or overwhelm with sorrow. See break v. 7 c.
b. To accomplish the hardest part of (a task), to ‘break the back of’.
1684J. Scott Chr. Life (ed. 3) 383 You must by this time have broken the Heart of the Difficulty of your Warfare. 1828Craven Dial. s.v., ‘To break the heart of a business’, to have almost finished it.
46. cry (eat, fight, plague, slave, tease, tire, weary, weep, etc.) one's heart out: to cry (etc.) violently or exhaustingly: see the verbs.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. ii. 54 Nay, you shall fight your hearts out ere I part you. 1712Swift Let. to Mrs. Dingley 25 Jan. (Seager), They have never paid him a groat, though I have teazed their hearts out. 1885Edna Lyall In Golden Days III. vii. 142, I could weep my heart out. 1886C. M. Yonge Mod. Telemachus I. i. 15 Making him weary his very heart out.
47. eat one's heart: to suffer or pine away from vexation or longing. See eat v. 8 c.
1581G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. i. (1586) 47 b, If you thinke to stoppe everie ones mouth: Which were to eate up your heart, as they say. 1591Spenser M. Hubberd 904 To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 15 ‘Eat not thy heart’, that is to say, offend not thine owne soule, nor hurt and consume it with pensive cares. 1890W. A. Wallace Only a Sister? xviii. 155 Why, there's poor Aikone..eating his heart out and getting no further.
48. a. have{ddd}heart. to have the heart: to be courageous or spirited enough, to prevail upon oneself (to do something); also (in mod. use and chiefly in negative sentences), to find it in one's heart, to be hard-hearted enough.
a1300Cursor M. 11805 Hu had he hert to sced þair blod? 1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) iv. xxxviii. (1859) 63, I am soo full of sorow, and of heuynes, that I haue no herte to speke to yow. 1489Caxton Faytes of A. i. vi. 12 All thoost shold haue the better herte to fyghte. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, i. ii. 15 Cursed the Heart, that had the heart to do it. 1657North's Plutarch Add. Lives (1676) 44 The Turks being discouraged..had not the heart to defend themselves. 1716Addison Freeholder No. 30 (Seager) One cannot have the heart to be angry at this judicious observer. 1780F. Burney Diary 6 Dec., I had no heart to leave..Mr. Thrale in a state so precarious. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge xlviii, Have you the heart to say this of your own son, unnatural mother! 1882Tennyson Promise of May iii. Wks. (1894) 798/2, I hadn't the heart or face to do it.
b. have, put (one's) heart in, into: see 11 b.
49. take heart. To pluck up courage. (Also with qualifying adj.) to take heart of grace, etc.: see heart of grace.
13..Coer de L. 5757 They wer bolde, her herte they tooke. 1530Palsgr. 748/1, I take herte, je prens couraige. 1590Spenser F.Q. iii. x. 26 Take good hart, And tell thy griefe. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. iv. iii. 174 Take a good heart, and counterfeit to be a man. 1663Butler Hud. i. iii. 35 Took heart again and fac'd about, As if they meant to stand it out. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge (Libr. ed.) II. ix. 76 Take heart, take heart. We'll find them.
**** With another noun.
50. heart and hand. (Also with h. and hand.) With will and execution; readily, willingly.
a1547Surrey Poems, Lover describeth (Aldine) 79 And all the planets as they stand, I thank them too with heart and hand. 1847–78Halliwell s.v., To be heart and hand, to be fully bent. 1884Times (weekly ed.) 19 Sept. 5/3 The woman said she would have admitted me ‘heart and hand’, only that her orders were peremptory.
51. heart{ddd}heart.
a. heart of hearts (orig. more correctly, heart of heart, heart's heart): the heart's core; the centre or depth of one's heart; one's inmost heart or feelings. Usually in one's heart of hearts.
1602Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 78, I will weare him In my hearts Core: I, in my Heart of heart. 1605Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iii. Law 1287 O Israel..in thy heart's-heart (not in Marble) beare His ever-lasting Law. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iv. v. 171 From heart of very heart, great Hector welcome. a1649Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 39/1 Him deep engrave In your heart's heart, from whom all good ye have. 1806Wordsw. Intim. Immort. 190 Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset II. lxxiii. 293 That she should be admitted to his heart of hearts. 1895Q. Rev. Oct. 298 In his heart of heart Froude would have admitted that.
b. a heart and a heart, a Hebraism = duplicity, insincerity. (Cf. 6 b.)
c825Vesp. Psalter xi. 3 [xii. 2] Welure faecne in heortan and heortan spreocende. 1382Wyclif Ps. xi[i]. 2 Ther treccherous lippis in herte and herte speeken. 1583Harsnet Serm. Ezek. (1658) 137 God doth abhor a Heart and a Heart, and his soule detesteth a double minded Man. 1611Bible 1 Chron. xii. 33 They were not of double heart [Heb. without a heart and a heart]. 1633Earl of Manchester Al Mondo (1636) 86 A heart and a heart God cannot abide. [heart and part: error for art and part: art 16.] c. heart-to-heart: used to denote conversation, discussion, etc. of real frankness and sincerity; usually attrib. but also absol. as n.
1867Mission Life 1 Mar. 190 The visitation of an Australian Bishop..is a hand-to-hand and heart-to-heart visit to each Clergyman, and to his people with him. 1894Advance 11 Oct., A kind of public religious ‘orphanage’, where no true heart-to-heart ‘mothering’..was possible. 1902A. H. Lewis Wolfville Days xi. 152 He don't own no real business to transact; he's out to have a heart-to-heart interview with the great Southwest. 1902Kipling Traffics & Discov. (1904) 22 He began by a Lydia Pinkham heart-to-heart talk about my health. 1906Daily Chron. 5 Mar. 6/4 A heart-to-heart discussion of the solar plexus and its part in the emotional economy of man. 1910S. E. White Rules of Game v. xvi. 444 Let's have a heart-to-heart, and find out how we stand. 1918E. M. Roberts Flying Fighter 201 After a heart-to-heart talk, I induced him to let me remain in the Flying Service. 1925Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves ix. 221 He and Jeeves had had a heart-to-heart chat in the kitchen. 1934J. E. Neale Queen Eliz. ii. 31 Parry came back to have heart-to-heart talks with Mistress Ashley and to probe Elizabeth's mind. 1948A. Waugh Unclouded Summer xv. 252, I have the girls up there in the evenings for ‘heart-to-hearts’. 1951L. MacNeice tr. Goethe's Faust 50 All this needs a little explaining And will keep till our next heart-to-heart. 1955W. Gaddis Recognitions i. v. 180 Baby, I just make a few notes on them and write these heart-to-heart confessions.
52. heart and soul.
a. The whole of one's affections and energies; one's whole being.
1883Rita After Long Grief xxvi. 160, I saw that you were mine, heart and soul, as ever. 1884Times (Weekly ed.) 26 Sept. 6/2 The earnest actor who has heart and soul in his work.
b. advb. With all one's energy and devotion.
1798Coleridge Lett. (1895) 261 Read it heart and soul. 1845M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 4 Entering heart and soul into the dust and heat of the Church's war with the world. 1888Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men II. xi. 329 He threw him⁓self, heart and soul, into every requirement of the time.
c. attrib. Devoted and enthusiastic.
1836Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) I. 275 The heart-and-soul manner in which he put himself in my place.
***** In ejaculations of surprise and exclamatory invocations.
53. † God's heart!, † Ods heart!, 's heart, or simply † heart! (obs.). Also, for God's heart, heart of God!, Ads my heart!, † my heart! (obs.), dear heart! The commonest expressions now are: Lord (God) bless my (your, etc.) heart! elliptically, bless my (etc.) heart! See bless v.1 9 and cf. life, soul.
c1386Chaucer Miller's T. 629 Help, water! water, help! for goddes herte. 1573New Custom ii. iii. in Hazl. Dodsley III. 37 Heart of God, man, be the means better or worse, I pass not. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. i. 252 Heart! you swear like a comfit-maker's wife. 1605Tryall Chev. iii. i. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 306 S'hart, what a name's that! 1681Dryden Sp. Friar ii. i, Heart! you were hot enough, too hot, but now. 1701Cibber Love makes Man ii. i. 27, I can't bear this! 'Sheart, I could cry for Madness! 1728Vanbr. & Cib. Prov. Husb. ii. i. 42 Odsheart! this was so kindly done of you naw. 1732Fielding Miser v. i, Bless her heart! good lady! 1741Richardson Pamela I. 84 Ad's my Heart! I think it would be the best Thing. 1844Dickens Christmas Carol 161 Dear heart alive, how his niece by marriage started! 1862Mrs. Sewell Patience Hart xxv. 166 Bless your heart, child; you are a good girl. 1886R. Broughton Dr. Cupid II. vii. 164 She can no longer look upon me as a child, bless her old heart!
****** Proverbial phrases and locutions.
54. a. one's heart † is in (at) one's heel(s or hose, † is at the bottom of, or turns into, one's hose, sinks in one's shoes, etc.; ludicrous intensifications of ‘the heart sinks’, connoting extreme fear or dejection. (See boot n.3 1 b.) b. to have one's heart in one's mouth, one's heart leaps into one's mouth (throat), referring to the violent beating and apparent leaping of the heart under the influence of a sudden start. So, to bring one's h. into one's mouth, make one's h. leap out of one's mouth. c. † to wear one's h. in one's mouth, † to have one's h. at one's tongue's end: to be always ready to speak what is in one's mind. † to carry one's mouth in one's h.: to do the opposite of this, to conceal one's thoughts, keep silence. d. one's h. is in its right place: one's sympathies are rightly engaged, one means well. †e. to have one's h. upon one's pouch: to be set upon one's private profit. f. to wear one's h. upon one's sleeve: to expose one's feelings, wishes, intentions, etc. to every one. g. to do one's heart good: to make one feel better, gladdened, strengthened, etc. (see also good).
a.c1430Hymns Virg. 91 Myn herte fil doun vnto my too. 1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 30 Your hert is in your hose all in dispaire. 1548Udall Erasm. Par. Luke xxii. 174 b, Petur beeyng feared with this saiyng of a woman..as if his herte had been in his hele clene gon. 1563–87Foxe A. & M. (1631) III. xi. 253/2 When the Bishop heard this, by and by his heart was in his heeles, and..he with the rest of the Court betooke them to their legges. c1600Timon i. v, My hart is at the bottome of my hose. 1642[see boot n.3 1 b.] 1682N. O. tr. Boileau's Lutrin. ii. 174 Chear up, and pluck thy Heart out of thy Hose! 1888Mrs. H. Ward R. Elsmere II. 153 An expression which sent the sister's heart into her shoes.
b.1548Udall Erasm. Par. Luke xxiii. 199 Hauyng their herte at their verai mouth for feare, they did not belieue that it was Iesus. 1601W. Parry Trav. Sir A. Sherley 16 It had been an easie matter to have found a company of poore hearts neere their maisters mouthes. 1716Addison Drummer i. i. (D.), I fell across a beam that lay in the way, and faith my heart was in my mouth; I thought I had stumbled over a spirit. 1809W. Irving Knickerb. (1861) 154 Antony..sounded a charge with such a tremendous outset..that it was enough to make one's heart leap out of one's mouth only to be within a mile of it. 1856G. J. Whyte-Melville Kate Cov. xiii, A ring at the door-bell brings everybody's heart into everybody's mouth. 1887Edna Lyall Knt.-Errant xviii. 158 Francesca's heart leapt into her mouth.
c.c1590Nashe Pasquil's Apol. i. C ii b, I will carrie my mouth in my hart..there is a time for speech, and a time for silence. 1592― P. Penilesse Wks. 1883–4 II. 5 A hare braind little Dwarfe..that hath his hart at his tongues end.
d.1809Malkin tr. Gil Blas (K. O.), Heart lies in the right place. 1886Schmitz tr. Stinde's Buchholtz Fam. 51 Your heart is in its right place; if only you had the right words on your tongue.
e.1583Golding Calvin on Deut. clxxxviii. 1171 Hee was such a one as had his tongue to sale, and his heart vppon his powche.
f.1604Shakes. Oth. i. i. 64 'Tis not long after But I will weare my heart vpon my sleeue For Dawes to pecke at. 1862Sala Seven Sons II. xi. 282 A..ready-tongued man, wearing..his heart upon his sleeve. 1891Smiles J. Murray II. xxxiv. 449 He did not wear his heart upon his sleeve.
g.1590Shakes. Mids. N. i. ii. 73, I will roare that I will doe any mans heart good to heare me. 1824Scott St. Ronan's vii, It's done me muckle heart's good.
III. Attributive uses and Combinations.
55. a. attrib. Of, for, or pertaining to (a) the physical heart, as heart-action, heart attack, heart-beating, heart condition, heart-disease, heart failure, heart-murmur, heart-pulse, heart rate, heart-shape, heart-shock, heart-strain, heart-stroke, heart-tube, heart-valve, heart-wall; (b) the heart as the seat of emotion, etc., as heart-agony, heart-anguish, † heart-brest (= burst), heart-burst, heart-corruption, heart-grief, heart-grudge, heart-hardness, heart-hate, heart-heaviness, heart-ill, heart-lift (so heart-lifter), heart-religion, heart-service, heart-sorrow, heart-springs, heart-worship, heart-wound, etc., etc.; also, with vbl. ns.: heart-bleeding, heart-heaving, heart-longing, heart-pining, heart-rising, heart-sinking, etc.
1887Cassell's Fam. Mag. July 467/2 A belladonna plaister..to quieten pain and *heart-action.
1807Wordsw. White Doe Rylstone ii. 102 That dimness of *heart-agony.
1710Philips Pastorals iv. 162 Who can relieve *Heart-anguish sore.
1935D. L. Sayers Gaudy Night xxi. 444 She's had rather a nasty *heart-attack, but she's better now.
1593Nashe Christ's T. Wks. 1883–4 IV. 248 This holy Father (with no little commiserate *hart-bleeding) beholding [etc.].
c1340Cursor M. 4283 (Trin.) What is more *herte brest Þen want of þing þat men loue best.
1845P. J. Bailey Festus (ed. 2) 258 Like a horse Put to his *heart-burst speed, sobbing up hill. 1896A. Morrison Child of Jago xiii. 134 Dicky..had been afflicted to heart-burst by his father's dodging and running.
a1711Ken Psyche Poet. Wks. 1721 IV. 211 To temper all the Sisters *Heart-complaints.
1946Mod. Lang. Notes Nov. 442 *Heart condition. 1958Listener 13 Nov. 778/2 Before cleaning a car..be certain you haven't a heart condition. 1971D. O'Connor Eye of Eagle viii. 53 He has a heart condition—nothing very serious.
1878Browning La Saisiaz 116 From the *heart-deeps where it slept.
1868Milman St. Paul's xi. 275 Elizabeth had no..comprehension of the *heart-depth of that Puritanism which thus opposed or slighted her mandates.
1864Tennyson Sea Dreams 264 He suddenly dropt dead of *heart disease.
1894‘O. Henry’ Compl. Wks. (1928) 797 ‘Read this,’ he said, ‘here is proof that Marie Cusheau died of *heart failure.’ 1906Lancet 13 Jan. 96/2 Dr. C. Bolton..read a paper entitled ‘The Treatment of Heart Failure in Diphtheria’. 1960I. A. Stanton Dict. for Med. Secretaries 68/1 Occasionally heart failure denotes a sudden cessation of heart action, but generally it merely means insufficient circulation.
1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Tristesse et douleur de cueur, sorowe, or *hartgriefe. 1671Milton Samson 1339 In my midst of sorrow and heart-grief To show them feats, and play before their god.
1577–87Holinshed Chron. I. 53/2 Which..was to them an occasion of *hartgrudge.
c1550Cheke Matt. xix. 8 Moosees did suffer iou to loos iour⁓selves from yor wiifes for iour *harthardnes. 1863A. B. Grosart Small Sins (ed. 2) 50 note, The gushing lip-kindness with heart-hardness of many.
1875Tennyson Q. Mary iii. iv, A fierce resolve and fixt *heart-hate.
a1806Fox Hist. Jas. II, iii. 210 (Jod.) With a *heart-hatred of popery, prelacy, and all superstition.
1600Shakes. A.Y.L. v. ii. 51 The more shall I to morrow be at the height of *heart heauinesse.
1751Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) I. viii. 65 Frequent palpitations, *heart-heavings, and alterations of countenance.
1678Bunyan Pilgr. 115 A life of holiness, *heart-holiness.
1892G. E. Woodberry Introd. Lamb's Elia p. xiii, That mournful fancy, that affection for things unrealized, which betray *heart-hunger.
a1605Montgomerie Flyting w. Polwart 302 The hunger, the *hart-ill, and the hoist still thee hald.
1893‘Mark Twain’ in Cosmopolitan Nov. 61/2 Oh, the *heart-lift that was in those words! 1967‘La Meri’ Sp. Dancing (ed. 2) 7 Yet who can reflect in the immutable phrase the heartlift in watching emotion in motion?
1901Kipling Kim x. 260 You will find one small silver amulet..a *heart-lifter. 1959New Statesman 25 Apr. 576/3 The heart-lifter that I chanced to hear was well up to her standard.
1884Hudson Stud. Wordsw. 243 The head-logic grows so out of proportion as to stifle and crush the *heart-logic.
1742Young Nt. Th. vi. 263 *Heart-merit wanting, mount we ne'er so high, Our Height is but the Gibbet of our name.
1798W. Sotheby tr. Wieland's Oberon (1826) II. 21, I, who in every *heart-pulse feel her glow.
1936Discovery 291/2 Adrenalin, by increasing the *heart rate..facilitates the passage of the current. 1961Lancet 22 July 190/1 An increase in heart⁓rate may also increase potassium efflux.
1758S. Hayward's Serm. p. viii, How truly his mind was bent in pursuit of *heart-religion.
1583Golding Calvin on Deut. xxxvii. 222 Ye must looke whether ye haue not some *hartrisings and eagernesse in you.
1668Phil. Trans. III. 859 The Interception of the *Heart-sap may have an effect analogous to the boring at the Heart.
1842W. Howitt Rural & Dom. Life Germany v. 62 The gingerbread was all made up into *heart-shapes. 1863G. Seton Law Her. Scotl. v. 192 This form..tending to the pear-shape and heart-shape.
1850Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. vi. (1864) 95 The man who has received the *heart-shock from which..he will not recover.
1660Baxter Call Unconverted 158 They charge them with *heart-sins, which none can see but God. 1842Manning Serm. (1848) I. 38 A heart-sin, indulged in secret, which eats into their whole spiritual life.
1743D. Brainerd Let. 30 Apr. in J. Edwards Life D. B. (1765) 265 There seems to be little of the special workings of the divine Spirit among them yet; which gives me many a *heart-sinking hour. 1879C. Rossetti Seek & F. 312 Moments of keenest fear and utmost heart-sinking.
1903B. Harraden Kath. Frensham xviii. 278 She, with..perseverance, dug a hole in their frozen *heart-springs. 1907Kipling Bk. of Words (1928) 36 A people..whose heart-springs go down deep into the fabric.
1906Med. Ann. 241 *Heart-strain in growing boys. 1909Daily Chron. 21 Aug. 6/2 Heartstrain and contraction of the joints.
1887T. Hardy Woodlanders III. xxi, They could read each other's *heart-symptoms like books.
1509Hawes Past. Pleas. xvi. xxii, To devyde my joye and my *hert torment.
1881Trans. Obstetr. Soc. Lond. XXII. 78 An abnormal amount of tension on the primitive *heart-tube.
1932Gray's Anat. (ed. 25) 1437 *Heart valves. 1963Daily Tel. 21 Sept. 9/5 (heading) Heart valve operation. Ibid., The limited number of heart valve replacement operations so far carried out.
1856R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 21 *Heart-weariness, the languishing longing for repose.
c1400Destr. Troy 10979 Pantasilia..Hit hym so heturly with a *hert wille, Þat he hurlit down hedlonges to the hard erthe.
1630Sanderson Serm. II. 262 The lip-worship they may have..but the *heart-worship they shall never have.
1839P. J. Bailey Festus 269 Her *heart-wound. 1902Temple Bar CXXVI. 111 It rained upon his bleeding heart-wound like balm. 1906Westm. Gaz. 3 Aug. 10/2 The faint, fine smell of new-mown grass Stabs like a heart-wound as I pass.
b. objective and obj. gen., as heart-biting, heart-conner, heart-disposer, heart-searcher, heart-wringing ns.; heart-affecting, heart-cheering, heart-dulling, heart-easing, heart-freezing, heart-fretting, heart-hardening, heart-holding, heart-melting, heart-moving, heart-purifying, heart-shaking, heart-sickening, heart-stirring, heart-swelling, heart-tearing, heart-warming, heart-wounding, heart-wringing, etc., etc., adjs.
1829I. Taylor Enthus. v. (1867) 101 The *heart-affecting elements of piety and virtue.
1587Golding De Mornay xii. 166 Consider..the *hart⁓bitings..which he indureth.
1659D. Pell Impr. Sea 304 One of the dreadfullest, and *heart-bleedingest conditions that can bee seen.
1644Vicars Jehovah-Jireh 5 The Suns..*heart-cheering bright beams.
1781Cowper Hope 714 In darkness and *heart-chilling fears.
1563J. Man Musculus' Commonpl. 45 a, He that made man..is aptly called Cardiognostes, that is, The *hart-conner.
1645Quarles Sol. Recant. v. 67 The *heart-corroding Fangs Of griping Care.
1654Trapp Comm. Esther v. 2 God the great *Heart-disposer so ordered it.
1593Shakes. Lucr. 1782 *Heart-easing words. 1632Milton L'Allegro 13 In Heav'n ycleap'd Euphrosyne, And by men, heart-easing Mirth.
1621Burton Anat Mel. i. ii. iv. v, Sequestred from all company, but *heart-eating melancholy.
1730–46Thomson Autumn 40 A gayly-checker'd *heart-expanding view.
1596spenser F.Q. iv. v. 45 Disquiet and *hart-fretting payne.
1748Smollett Rod. Rand. lxi. (1804) 439 *Heart-gnawing cares corrode my pensive breast.
1607Shakes. Cor. iv. i. 25 Thou hast oft beheld *Heart-hardning spectacles.
1897J. L. Allen Choir Invisible xvi. 240 Universal fellowship with seeding grass and breeding herb and every *heart-holding creature of the woods. 1913E. F. Benson Thorley Weir iv, Things fairer and more heart-holding.
a1711Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 112 *Heart-melting Zeal. 1784Burns Commonpl. Bk. Sept., There is..a heart-melting tenderness, in some of our ancient ballads.
1593Drayton Essex Wks. 1753 II. 590 *Heart-moving music.
1581Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 23 This *hart-rauishing knowledge.
1594Spenser Amoretti xxxix, A melting pleasance..me revived with *hart-robbing gladnesse.
1907Tatler 22 May 132/2 A *heart-shaking tragedy. 1911Kipling Diversity of Creatures (1917) 130 The heart-shaking jests of Decay. 1918V. Woolf in Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Jan. 55/1 Effective and heart-shaking ghost stories. 1945W. S. Churchill Victory (1946) 223 The decision..remained nevertheless a heart-shaking risk.
1814Scott Wav. xxvii, The long and *heart⁓sickening griefs which attend a rash and ill-assorted marriage. 1820Edin. Monthly Rev. Apr. 449 Can anything be more heart-sickening to such a philanthropist? 1902London Mag. VIII. 432/2 It was heart-sickening, as his great form with its yellow skin and black stripes, as his blazing eyes, his flashing teeth and his outspread claws rose toward us through the air.
1848R. Blakey Free-w. 91 These *heart⁓stirring and delightful emotions.
1814Jane Austen Mansf. Park III. vi, Her happiness was of a quiet, deep, *heart-swelling sort. 1884W. James Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) 258 In listening to poetry..we are often surprised at the..heart-swelling and the lachrymal effusion that unexpectedly catch us.
1916‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 149 Thirty-six solid hours of physical stress and *heart-tearing strain. 1920Glasgow Herald 21 Oct. 6 The latest phases of the heart-tearing Irish tragedy.
1590Spenser F.Q. iii. ii. 5 With *hart-thrilling throbs and bitter stowre.
1580Sidney Arcadia iii. (1724) II. 431 What a *heart⁓tickling joy it is.
1899Daily News 20 Apr. 5/7 They are a *heart-warming cordial. 1966Times (Austral. Suppl.) 28 Mar. p. viii/4 Perth..friendly enough to give..migrants..a heartwarming impression of their new country.
1872Black Adv. Phaeton xxiii. 327 What bitterness and grievous *heart-wringing. 1932H. Crane Let. 12 Apr. (1965) 408 The Mexican singer..is generally shrill but capable of heart-wringing vibrations.
c. locative and instrumental. In, at, from, with the heart; as to the heart: as heart-blow; heart-angry, heart-burdened, heart-chilled, heart-deadened, heart-dear, heart-deep, heart-drawn, heart-free, heart-full, heart-happy, heart-hardened, heart-heavy, heart-hungry, heart-sorrowing, heart-true, heart-weary, heart-wounded, heart-wrung, etc., adjs.; heart-eat vb.
1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman D'Alf. ii. 160, I was *heart-angry with my selfe, that I had told him so much.
1731Medley Kolben's Cape G. Hope I. 362 The coup-de-grace, or *heart-blow, as it is called, not being given them, they were taken alive from the wheel.
1646Crashaw Delights Muses (1652) 102 The *heart-bred lustre of his worth.
1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. iii. 12 My *heart-deere-Harry.
1609R. Armin Maids of More-Cl. (1880) 100 It is my loue..that makes me step *Heart-deepe in disobedience to my mother. 1871Swinburne Songs bef. Sunrise, Blessed among Women 106 Heavens own heart-deep blue.
1851D. Jerrold St. Giles xi. 111 A deep, *heart-drawn sigh broke from him.
1630R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlem. (1641) 197 They..cannot see..anything which likes them, but with a greedy eye they *heart-eat it.
1830I. Taylor Unitar. 111 *Heart-fallen and sick of the profitless usages of devotion.
1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) II. 167 If indeed she be hitherto innocent and *heart-free. 1886W. S. Gilbert Ruddigore (1887) 4 Rose is still heart-free.
1876T. Hardy Ethelberta (1890) 168 She was *heartfull of many emotions.
1623Penkethman Handf. Hon. iv. i, If thou would'st be *heart-happy, wealth despise.
1661R. Davenport City Night-cap i. in Hazl. Dodsley XIII. 107 She that is lip-holy Is many times *heart-hollow.
1591Greene Maiden's Dreame xlii, *Heart-holy men he still kept at his table.
1880W. S. Gilbert Patience 15 Do you know what it is to be *heart-hungry?
1727–46Thomson Summer 892 The *heart-shed tear, th' ineffable delight Of sweet humanity.
1594Shakes. Rich. III, ii. ii. 112 You clowdy Princes, and *hart-sorowing-Peeres.
1601Chester Love's Mart., K. Arth. xcvii, *Heart swolne heauinesse.
1602Warner Alb. Eng. xi. lxviii, And theare did him the *heart trew King most kindly intertaine.
1840Mrs. Norton Dream 12 Sinking *heart-weary, far away from home.
1791Burns Ae Fond Kiss in Wks. (1871) 294 Deep in *heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee. 1820Ellen Fitzarthur 93 Floods of heart-wrung tears. 1948C. Day Lewis Poems 1943–47 70 One heart-wrung phantom still..Shadows my noontime still.
d. similative, as heart-fashioned, heart-leaved adjs. Also heart-shaped.
1756Sir J. Hill Brit. Herbal 359 The lower lip..is short, broad, and heart-fashioned. 1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 630 The three species of cinchona..the lance⁓leaved..heart leaved..and oblong leaved.
56. a. Special Combs.: † heart-bag, the pericardium; heart-balm, (a) something that soothes a person's emotions; (b) U.S. slang, alimony; heart-bearer, † (a) a name of the Franciscan friars; (b) a name of the moth Anorta cordigera; heart-bird, the Turnstone, Strepsilas interpres (U.S.); heart-block [block n. 19 d] Med. (see quot. 1906); heart brass, a brass sepulchral tablet in which a heart is represented (see quot. 1912); heart-cake, a heart-shaped cake; heart-cam (see quot.); heart-clot, a clot of blood or fibrin formed in the heart, usually after death; heart-cockle, a bivalve mollusc, Isocordia cor, so called from its shape; heart-hurry Med., tachycardia (see also quot. 1897); † heart-lath, a lath made from the heartwood of the oak; heart-line Palmistry = line of the heart (line n.2 8 b); heart-lung attrib., involving or consisting of the heart and the lungs, esp. when removed together for physiological experimentation; heart-lung machine, a machine to which a patient's blood supply is connected during an operation and which by-passes and takes over the functions of the heart and the lungs; heart-moth, the moth Dicycla Oo; heart-motion, the motion generated by a heart-cam; heart-net, -piece (see quots.); † heart-pit, the hollow in the middle of the breast at the bottom of the breast-bone; † heart-purse, heart-sac, the pericardium; heart-rot, a disease which causes decay in the heart of a tree; also, a fungous disease of beetroots etc.; hearts-and-flowers orig. U.S., undue sentimentality, cloying sweetness; also attrib.; heart-seine, -shake (see quots.); heart-shell = heart-cockle; † heart-side, the left side; heart-sound (see quots.); heart-strand, the central strand of a rope: cf. 18 b; † heart-strength, the central strength or fortress; heart-stroke, (a) the impulse of the contraction of the heart, apex-beat; (b) = angina pectoris; heart-talk, a heart-to-heart talk; heart-thimble (Naut.), a heart-shaped thimble; heart-throb, (a) lit. a pulsation of the heart; (b) colloq. (orig. U.S.) something or (esp.) someone that thrills the heart, a lover: freq. used of film stars and other entertainers; also attrib.; heart-trace, ‘the record on smoked paper made by the needle of a cardiograph’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); heart transplant, an operation in which a heart from one person is transplanted into the body of another; similarly of two animals; a heart so transplanted; also attrib. and fig.; heart-urchin, a sea-urchin of the genus Spatangus, being heart-shaped; a spatangoid; heart-warm a., warm-hearted, genuinely affectionate; heart-wheel = heart-cam; † heart-white, the white spot on a butt or target; heart-worm, a parasitic nematode worm which infests the hearts of some carnivores, or the disease caused by this worm; also transf.; heart-yarn, the soft yarn in the centre of a rope.
1668Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. ii. vi. 100 The Watry Vapors of both the Ventricles, are congealed into the water of the *Heart-bag.
1922Joyce Ulysses 352 There were wounds that wanted healing with *heartbalm. 1938Wodehouse Summer Moonshine x. 126 This Miss Prudence Whittaker is suing this T. P. Vanringham for breach of promise and heart balm.
1561J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 116 b, The secte of the Fryers Minors (otherwyse called *hartbearers).
1844J. E. De Kay Zool. N. York ii. 216 Known under the name of Brant-bird, *Heart-bird, Horse⁓foot Snipe, and Beach-bird.
1903Lancet 22 Aug. 523/1 The jugular pulsations correspond to independent auricular contractions which are not propagated to the ventricles—a state of ‘*heart-block’. 1906Brit. Med. Jrnl. 27 Oct. 1107/1 The term ‘heart-block’ is applied to that condition where the stimulus for contraction passing from auricle to ventricle, is stopped or ‘blocked’ on account of some defect in those muscle fibres. 1966Lancet 31 Dec. 1441/1 Patients who had partial heart block while on P.G.I. therapy alone..reverted to sinus rhythm. 1971Jrnl. Gen. Psychol. Jan. 13 Magnesium sulphate was superior to sodium amytal and ether. Its main drawback was its tendency to produce heart block.
1907H. W. Macklin Brasses of England viii. 205 The typical form of a *heart brass is seen when this device is placed by itself in the midst of a monumental slab. 1912J. S. M. Ward Brasses 80 Heart brasses proper fall into two main divisions: (a) plain, sometimes inscribed or with scrolls, (b) held by hands, usually coming out of a cloud. 1956A. C. Bouquet Church Brasses vii. 114 There is a large heart brass at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.
1756F. Brooke Old Maid No. 36 (1764) 294 Delicate *heart-cakes, a penny a-piece. 1885Old Lond. Cries 29 ‘Spanish Chestnuts’; ‘Ripe Turkey Figs’; ‘Heart Cakes’.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Heart-cam, a form of cam which serves for the conversion of uniform rotary motion into uniform rectilinear reciprocating motion.
1874Dunglison Med. Dict. s.v. Polypus, Fibrinous concretions found in the heart, *Heart clots.
1854Woodward Mollusca ii. 300 The *heart-cockle burrows in sand by means of its foot.
1891Lancet 18 July 118/2 (title) Paroxysmal *heart hurry associated with visceral disorders. 1897Med. Times & Hosp. Gaz. XXV. 33/2 By acceleration of the heart or ‘heart-hurry’, is meant a persistent increase of the pulse above eighty in a woman, well above seventy beats per minute in a man, and above ninety in a child. Heart-hurry is divided into two kinds; they are tachycardia and palpitation.
1479Churchw. Acc. St. Mary Hill, Lond. (Nichols 1797) 94 For 4 cwts. of *Hertlaths. 1617in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 205 The studies to bee lathed with hart lath. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Building, Heart Laths of Oak are one shilling and ten pence a bundle or hundred.
1893Beerbohm Let. 14 Oct. (1964) 76 He has no *heart-line on his right hand. 1894‘Mark Twain’ in Century Mag. Feb. 554/2 Wilson began to study Luigi's palm, tracing life lines, heart lines, head lines, and so on. 1956N. D. Ford Life in your Hands v. 40 The Head and Heart lines join in forming one straight line... The Fate line begins well clear of the Heart line.
1912Jrnl. Physiol. XLV. 213 The *heart-lung preparation should serve therefore for investigations on the normal gaseous metabolism of the heart. Ibid. 214 The apparatus consisted of the heart-lung circulation apparatus as described by Knowlton and Starling, and of a respiration apparatus. 1925Ibid. LX. 103 (title) A closed circuit heart lung preparation. 1945Amer. Jrnl. Physiol. CXLIV. 191 No details of the experiments on the heart-lung preparation need be presented. Ibid., The results of the thirty-two heart lung experiments can be summarized as follows. 1959Daily Tel. 24 Apr. 13/3 In the party is Dr. Denis Melrose, inventor of the heart-lung machine which bears his name. This makes possible the by-passing of heart and lungs, and enables the operating surgeon to work on a heart which is bloodless, clear and stopped. 1961Lancet 22 July 187/1 (heading) Variable atrial venting for the Melrose heart-lung machine. 1968J. H. Burn Lect. Notes Pharmacol. (ed. 9) 37 Another way of demonstrating the action of ouabain on the ventricular contraction is in the heart-lung preparation of the dog.
1869E. Newman Brit. Moths 381 The *Heart Moth.. appears on the wing in July, and has occurred in the New Forest.
1829E. Irving Tales Times Mart. in Anniversary 283 Her spinning wheel was of the upright construction, having no heck, but a moveable eye which was carried along the pirn by a *heart-motion.
1884Knight, Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Heart-Net, a [fishing] net with a leader and a bowl or pound, between which is a heart-shaped funnel.
1884F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. (ed. 4) 121 *Heart Piece, a heart-shaped cam used in chronographs to cause the chronograph hand to fly back to zero.
13..K. Alis. 2250 He hit him thorugh theo *heorte put.
1615Crooke Body of Man 426 Hee thinketh that the water which is found in the *heart purse is a portion of our drinke.
1847J. Brown Forester v. 193 That disease, now so prevalent among our larch plantations, generally termed the *heart-rot—or, as some writers term it, dry-rot. 1882Encycl. Brit. XIV. 311/2 A far more formidable enemy [of larches] is the disease known as the ‘heart-rot’. 1909Cent. Dict. Suppl. 571/2 Heart-rot..of beets. 1919W. E. Hiley Fungal Dis. Common Larch v. 80 Heart-rot of trees is caused by fungi which grow saprophytically on the dead wood. 1945New Biol. I. 52 Heart rot of swedes. 1955Auden Shield of Achilles i. 19 An oak with heart-rot. 1968Gloss. Terms Timber Preservation (B.S.I.) 10 Heart rot, a type of decay characteristically confined to the heart-wood.
1896Daily News 29 Dec. 3/2 The heart had been slowly bleeding into the pericardium or ‘*heart-sac’..and no help would have availed to save her life.
[1908A. Woollcott Lett. (1946) 13 Taking dinner with the mother of the girl I hope to marry some day, and she played ‘*Hearts and Flowers’ for me.] 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §265.1 Sentimentality, hearts and flowers. 1964Times 16 Apr. 6/7 We are nearly betrayed into a hearts-and-flowers ending in domestic compromise. 1967Listener 11 May 626/2 Hearts-and-flowers confrontations between..pop singer..and a girl friend.
1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Heart Seine (Fishing), a species of seine, with a leader, heart, and pound secured by stakes so that the upper edge is floated at the surface and the lower touches the bottom.
1875T. Laslett Timber 25 Timber having much *heart-shake. 1884Spon's Mech. Own Bk. (1886) 167 ‘Heartshakes’: splits or clefts in the centre of the tree; common in nearly every kind of timber.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., *Heart-shells..always expressing what we call the figure of a Heart.
1580Sidney Arcadia iii. (1724) II. 664 Closing her eyes, and turning upon her *heart-side.
1876Clin. Soc. Trans. IX. 111 *Heart-sounds were clean and free from murmur. 1886Syd. Soc. Lex., H[eart] sounds..are two in number, one dull and prolonged, the other shorter, sharper, and terminating more abruptly. They have been likened to the syllables tŭb, dŭp.
c1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 52 The standing rigging is often made with four strands and a *heart strand.
1618Bolton Florus iii. x. (1636) 205 Then assaulting the *heart-strengths of the Warre, he destroyed Avaricum.
1860Chambers's Encycl. I. 254 Subject to fits of the *heart-stroke. 1874Dunglison Med. Dict. s.v. Heart, The Beating or Impulse of the heart, Heart-stroke, Apex beat..against the parietes of the chest is mainly caused by the systole of the heart, which tends to project forwards.
1912F. M. Hueffer Panel i. ii. 31, I want a regular—what you might call—*heart-talk with Miss Delamere.
1882Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 37 The shroud is turned in round a *heart thimble.
1839P. J. Bailey Festus 62 We should count time by *heart-throbs. 1846Whittier Lines 2 He..felt the heart-throb of the free. 1908Modern Song Favorites: High Voices 2 (title) Heart-Throbs. 1912J. London Let. 19 Nov. (1966) 368 I've not much heart-throb left for my fellow beings. 1914G. Burgess Burgess Unabridged 7 The ‘jacket’ of the ‘latest’ fiction..tells of ‘thrills’ and ‘heart-throbs’. 1926Atlantic Monthly Mar. 390/1 Word has gone out to the writers..that the heart throb is what the reading world now pulsates to. 1928J. P. McEvoy Show Girl (title-p.), Cast... Also..the Heart-throb Poet. 1930Wodehouse Very Good, Jeeves ix. 227 She has got that way..from a lifetime of writing heart-throb fiction for the masses. 1943‘A. A. Fair’ Double or Quits (1949) vii. 72 She's easy on the eyes, but she's a little too anxious to have it understood I'm her heart throb. 1958G. Mitchell Spotted Hemlock ii. 16 He was quite a heart-throb, you know. 1959D. du Maurier Breaking Point 202 A heart-throb, a lover, someone with wide shoulders and no hips. 1966Listener 23 June 911/2 Rudolph Valentino was the great heart-throb of the silent screen in the nineteen-twenties.
1952Surg. Forum 1951 217 An arterial supply from the host was anastomosed to a pulmonary vein of the *heart transplant and an outlet for the left ventricular output of the heart transplant was provided. 1960Ibid. X. 103 Forty-eight puppy heart transplants are reported. 1963Surg. Gynecol. & Obstetrics CXVII. 361/2 If a renal graft fails to function for several days after transplantation, the host can be supported by dialysis. A heart transplant at the present time enjoys no such privilege and must function vigorously immediately. 1967Times 4 Dec. 1/7 The heart transplant operation, the first in the world, took Groote Schuur's surgical team five hours. 1968Guardian 11 Sept. 1/5 Some of the gravest criticisms yet were yesterday levelled against the over⁓eagerness of heart-transplant surgeons to get hold of donors. 1973N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 21 Jan. 2 It is a real heart-transplant into English of the great Alexandrian love-poet and voluptuary.
1843Embleton in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. No. 11. 51 Amphidotus cordatus. Common *Heart Urchin. 1855Kingsley Glaucus (1878) 167 The great purple heart-urchin (Spatangus purpureus), clothed in pale lilac horny spines.
1787Burns Farew. Brethren St. James's Lodge, Adieu! a *heart-warm, fond adieu! 1834M. Scott Cruise Midge (1863) 200 A shout of heartwarm and heart⁓felt gratitude.
1806O. Gregory Mech. (1807) II. 203 *Heart wheel is the name given in England to a well-known method of converting a circular motion into an alternating rectilinear one..contrived we believe by Sir Samuel Morland about the year 1685. 1875Ure's Dict. Arts III. 997 The periphery of the heart-wheel..is seen to bear upon friction wheels.
1600Look about You xiv. in Hazl. Dodsley VII. 426 Ay, there's the But, whose *heart-white if we hit, The game is ours.
1888J. S. Stallybrass tr. J. Grimm Teut. Mythol. IV. 1659 Stories of the *heart-worm. Ibid. 1660 The miser's heart-worm. 1955W. W. Denlinger Compl. Boston 94 Heart worms..in dogs are rare. 1957Encycl. Brit. XVI. 207/2 Dirofilaria immitis (cause of heartworm in dogs). 1959Listener 5 Nov. 796/1 The professional intimate, the confidential heart-worm with the hypodermic technique, is one of the horrors of television. 1965E. J. L. Soulsby Textbk. Vet. Clin. Path. I. iv. 100 Dirofilaria immitis is the heartworm and is parasitic in the..dog, fox, wolf and various other wild carnivores.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v., The *heart-yarn or centre, on which four-stranded rope is formed.
b. In names of trees and plants: heart-cherry, a heart-shaped variety of the cultivated cherry; heart-clover, Medicago maculata; heart-leaf, (a) = prec.; (b) an American species of Limnanthemum, also called floating heart; heart-liver = heart-clover; † heart-nut, a name for the Cashew-nut, Anacardium; heart of the earth, a popular name of Self-heal, Prunella vulgaris; heart-pea, heart-seed, a name for plants of the genus Cardiospermum, especially of C. Helicacabum, from the heart-shaped scar which marks the attachment of the seed; † heart-trefoil = heart-clover.
1596Gerarde Catal. Arborum (1876) 29 C[erasus] cordata maiora. Great *hart Cherrie. 1655Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 294 Heart-Cherries, because they are made like a Heart..are the firmest of all other.
c1000Sax. Leechd. I. 16 Herba chamedris þæt is *heortclœfre. 1794Heart-clover [see clover n. 2].
1854Thoreau Walden ix. (1886) 178 A few small *heart-leaves and potamogetons.
1794Martyn Flora Rustica III. lxxvi, Heart Medick..others call it Heart Claver or Clover, which has been corrupted into *Heart Liver.
1568Turner Herbal iii. 51 Anacardium maye be called in Englishe *Hartnut of the likenes that it hath with an hart.
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. lii. §2. 271 The blacke winter Cherrie is called..in English the Indian hart, or *hart Pease. 1731–68Miller Gard. Dict., Cardiospermum, Hart Pea; by the inhabitants of America called Wild Parsley.
Ibid., *Heart⁓seed with smooth leaves. 1866Treas. Bot. 222 The common Heartseed..sometimes called also Winter Cherry, or Heart Pea.
1597Gerarde Herbal (1633) 1189 The *Hart Trefoile hath..leaues ioined together by three on little slender foot⁓stalks, euery little leafe of the fashion of a heart, whereof it took his name. 1656W. Coles Art of Simpling 89 Heart Trefoyle is so called..also because each Leafe containes the perfect Icon of an Heart, and that in its proper colour, viz. a flesh colour.
▪ II. heart, v.|hɑːt|
Forms: 1 hyrtan, hiertan, 3 hirten, 3–5 hert(e-n, 5–6 hart, 6– heart.
[OE. hiertan, hyrtan:—*hertjan, *heortjan, f. hert, heort, heart n. (Cf. MHG. herzen, MDu. herten in same sense.)]
1. trans. To give heart to, put heart into (a person, etc.); to inspire with confidence, embolden, encourage, inspirit, animate; = hearten 1. arch.
c897K. ælfred Gregory's Past. viii. 53 Mid oðrum worde he hierte. c1205Lay. 25941 Beduer heo gon hirten mid hendeliche woorden. c1250Gen. & Ex. 1980 His sunes comen..And hertedin him. a1300Cursor M. 27296 Þat þe preist..hert þe sinful wel. c1400Ywaine & Gaw. 1889 He herted so his cumpany, The moste coward was ful hardy. c1410Love Bonavent. Mirr. lxii. 115 (Gibbs MS.) Þis one thyng schulde stire & herte þin intencioun. 1540R. Hyrde tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) C j, Those that bee apt, should bee harted and encouraged. 1580Sidney Arcadia iii. Wks. 372 Growing now so hearted in his resolution. 1681S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 189 To sing and pray..hearts them more when danger comes, Than others trumpets and their drums. 1830Tennyson Poems 33 A grief not uninformed and dull, Hearted with hope.
b. Const. to and inf., or subord. clause.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. i. (1495) 737 All beestys of the erthe ben..hertyd to gendre. c1449Pecock Repr. ii. v. 165 That he mai therbi be hertid..for to serue God. 1450–1530Myrr. our Ladye 262 Martyrs she harted to suffer ioyfully trybulacyons. 1600Fairfax Tasso ix. liii. 169 Harting the Pagans that they shrinked not. 1848Fraser's Mag. XXXVIII. 315 It was long before I was hearted to herd again in the woods by myself.
†2. To supply with physical strength or stimulus; to put (land) into good heart. Cf. hearten v. 3 b, heart n. 21. Obs.
1573Tusser Husb. xlviii. (1878) 106 The land is well harted with helpe of the fold, for one or two crops.
3. To take to heart, establish or fix in the heart. (See also hearted 5.)
1604Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 373, I hate the Moore. My cause is hearted; thine hath no lesse reason. 1633T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter ii. 6 There is one thing, if we hear it, and heart it, enough to fright us all.
b. To establish as central or essential. rare.
1884Browning Ferishtah, Two Camels 84 The richness hearted in such joy Is in the knowing what are gifts we give.
†c. To utter with the heart or sincerely. Obs.
1642S. Ashe Best Refuge for Oppresed 48 It will not be sufficient to say a Prayer..or to word it before the Lord; but we should rather heart it before God in holy prayer.
4. Building. To fill up the central space within (a piece of masonry) with rubble or similar material. Also with in.
1776G. Semple Building in Water 49 We..laid a Course of large flat Stones, and filled and hearted them in close about the Pile. Ibid. 79 They hearted their Walls with their Spawls and smallest Stones. 1892Gd. Words Feb. 103/1 It was enough to ‘heart’ the embankment with clay, and protect it outside with heavy stonework.
5. intr. Of a plant, esp. cabbage, lettuce, etc.: To form a ‘heart’ or close compact head; to have the leaves growing into a firm dense globe.
1866Treas. Bot. 166/1 Cabbages are preferred when..thoroughly hearted and blanched. Ibid. Heading or hearting cabbages. 1887Gardening 17 Dec. 569/1 The cabbages heart sooner by two or three weeks. |