heartrending

[ hahrt-ren-ding ]
See synonyms for heartrending on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. causing or expressing intense grief, anguish, or distress.

Origin of heartrending

1
First recorded in 1680–90; heart + rending

Other words from heartrending

  • heart·rend·ing·ly, adverb

Words that may be confused with heartrending

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

How to use heartrending in a sentence

  • I have to groan heartrendingly in one of them, and it's really hard to get up a good artistic groan, Marilla.

    Anne Of Green Gables | Lucy Maud Montgomery
  • "But such a cognition is of hell," he cried, and he let his face fall into his hands and sobbed heartrendingly.

    A Pair of Patient Lovers | William Dean Howells
  • It struck him as strangely changed, strangely and heartrendingly familiar.

    Sisters | Kathleen Norris
  • The little Boer girl, who is to stay another year, is terribly homesick for South Africa, and wept heartrendingly as we parted.

    An American Girl in Munich | Mabel W. Daniels

British Dictionary definitions for heart-rending

heart-rending

adjective
  1. causing great mental pain and sorrow

Derived forms of heart-rending

  • heart-rendingly, adverb

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