heart-searching
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of heart-searching
First recorded in 1640–50; heart ( def. ) + searching ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the aftermath there will be much heart-searching and even recriminations that this massive stockpile of ammonium nitrate was left unattended in such a sensitive place as the docks.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 5, 2020
When Elizabeth, played with exquisite subtlety by Clare Foy, learns that her pledge was based on faulty advice served up by her lugubrious private secretary, Tommy Lascelles, she is full of consternation and hesitant heart-searching.
From New York Times ● Nov. 23, 2016
The result was hours of heart-searching for those entrusted with the feeding of the Faithful.
From Mrs. Bindle Some Incidents from the Domestic Life of the Bindles by Hebert Jenkins
If he were severe now, she would surely come to see the absurdity of these religious fears, this heart-searching and morbid sensitiveness.
From Plashers Mead A Novel by Compton MacKenzie
The next trial was to be the most heart-searching and trying of all, and ’Alam Gul felt he would ten times rather have had the anathemas of the Mullahs or the beatings of his enemies.
From Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier A Record of Sixteen Years' Close Intercourse with the Natives of the Indian Marches by T. L. (Theodore Leighton) Pennell
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.
