bleeding heart

See synonyms for bleeding heart on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. any of various plants belonging to the genus Dicentra, of the fumitory family, especially D. spectabilis, a common garden plant having long, one-sided clusters of rose or red heart-shaped flowers.

  2. a person who makes an ostentatious or excessive display of pity or concern for others.

Origin of bleeding heart

1
First recorded in 1685–95

Other words from bleeding heart

  • bleeding-heart, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use bleeding heart in a sentence

  • He made no reference or allusion to his loss, but all could see he carried a bleeding heart.

  • How kindly, my beloved Mrs. Norton, do you soothe the anguish of a bleeding heart!

    Clarissa, Volume 6 (of 9) | Samuel Richardson
  • He pressed his forehead against the saddle, and from the depth of a bleeding heart came up an agonised exclamation.

  • Blotted out, too, were the years of his anger and the scars of a bleeding heart, and years of indignant suffering.

    Dodo's Daughter | E. F. Benson
  • Dicentra spectabilis (bleeding heart), red and white; one to two feet; May.

    A Woman's Hardy Garden | Helena Rutherfurd Ely

British Dictionary definitions for bleeding heart

bleeding heart

noun
  1. any of several plants of the genus Dicentra, esp the widely cultivated Japanese species D. spectabilis, which has finely divided leaves and heart-shaped nodding pink flowers: family Fumariaceae

  2. informal

    • a person who is excessively softhearted

    • (as modifier): a bleeding-heart liberal

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012