HEARTACHE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does heartache mean? 

• HEARTACHE (noun)
  The noun HEARTACHE has 1 sense:

1. intense sorrow caused by loss of a loved one (especially by death)

  Familiarity information: HEARTACHE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HEARTACHE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Intense sorrow caused by loss of a loved one (especially by death)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

brokenheartedness; grief; heartache; heartbreak

Hypernyms ("heartache" is a kind of...):

sorrow (an emotion of great sadness associated with loss or bereavement)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "heartache"):

dolor; dolour ((poetry) painful grief)

 Context examples 

It would save me many a heartache.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Jo heard that, but made no answer, except to kiss her mother, and walk rapidly away, thinking with a glow of gratitude, in spite of her heartache, How good she is to me!

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I think it was meant to be so, and would have come about naturally, if I had waited, as you tried to make me, but I never could be patient, and so I got a heartache.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)