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Absence makes the heart grow fonder

  1. Persons, places, or things become dearer to us when they are absent.


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Idioms and Phrases

Separation intensifies love, as in After a year in another country she accepted his proposal, so I guess absence makes the heart grow fonder , or, used ironically, The boss leaves earlier every day; oh well, absence makes the heart grow fonder . Although versions of this saying date from Roman times, it only became popular after Thomas Haynes Bayly used it as the last line of a song in The Isle of Beauty (1850). The opposite sentiment is expressed by familiarity breeds contempt .

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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