bleeding heart
noun
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Examples from the Web for bleeding heart
Some of the bleeding-heart left-wing, extreme left-wing, are actually different from liberals.
Robert Duvall on His Storied Career, His New Movie, and Why He’s Ditching the GOP|Marlow Stern|March 13, 2014|DAILY BEASTJust plain, old-fashioned, bleeding-heart liberal Democrats.
Michigan’s Primary Party Crashers: Democrats Crossing Over to Thwart Romney|Ben Jacobs|February 28, 2012|DAILY BEASTIn Sodom, the mob comes to get the strangers and the bleeding-heart liberal who tried to put a roof over their head.
The bleeding-heart is a rather shy flower, and never makes itself common enough to dull our enthusiasm for it.
The Wild Flowers of California: Their Names, Haunts, and Habits|Mary Elizabeth Parsons
British Dictionary definitions for bleeding heart
bleeding heart
noun
- a person who is excessively softhearted
- (as modifier)a bleeding-heart liberal
Word Origin and History for bleeding heart
bleeding heart
type of flowering plant, so called from 1690s. In the sense of "person excessively sympathetic" (especially toward those the speaker deems not to deserve it) is attested by 1951, but said by many to have been popularized with reference to liberals (especially Eleanor Roosevelt) in 1930s by newspaper columnist Westbrook Pegler (1894-1969), though quotations are wanting; bleeding in a figurative sense of "generous" is from late 16c., and the notion of one's heart bleeding as a figure of emotional anguish is from late 14c., but the exact image here may be the "bleeding heart of Jesus."