Heartburning
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Secret enmity; discontent.
"[N]ecessity may abolish any law, but cannot alter the sentiments of the vulgar; right of inheritance being perhaps the most popular of all topicks; and therefore in great changes, when that is broke, there will remain much heart-burning and discontent among the meaner people; which (under a weak prince and corrupt administration) may have the worst consequences upon the peace of any state."
- 2 intense resentment wordnet
- 3 Heartburn.
"Hee sett Promethius, on a merrye pynn, / Whoe dranke soe devillishly, that there he gott / A terrible heartburninge, […]"
Example
More examples"[N]ecessity may abolish any law, but cannot alter the sentiments of the vulgar; right of inheritance being perhaps the most popular of all topicks; and therefore in great changes, when that is broke, there will remain much heart-burning and discontent among the meaner people; which (under a weak prince and corrupt administration) may have the worst consequences upon the peace of any state."
Etymology
From heart + burning.
More for "heartburning"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.