Heart-rending

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Alternative form of heartrending. alt-of, alternative

    "With much delicacy, avoiding to instance in her self-experience, she told me, that so long ago as when she used to play the part of the Little Son to Mrs. Porter’s Isabella, (I think it was) when that impressive actress has been bending over her in some heart-rending colloquy, she has felt real hot tears come trickling from her, which (to use her powerful expression) have perfectly scalded her back."

Example

More examples

"With much delicacy, avoiding to instance in her self-experience, she told me, that so long ago as when she used to play the part of the Little Son to Mrs. Porter’s Isabella, (I think it was) when that impressive actress has been bending over her in some heart-rending colloquy, she has felt real hot tears come trickling from her, which (to use her powerful expression) have perfectly scalded her back."

Related phrases

More for "heart-rending"

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.