heartsink

British  

/ ˈhɑːtˌsɪŋk /

noun

1. 1. a patient who repeatedly visits his or her doctor's surgery, often with multiple or non-specific symptoms, and whose complaints are impossible to treat

   2. ( as modifier )

      heartsink patients

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Etymology

Origin of heartsink

C20: so-called because the patient's appearance in the surgery makes the doctor's heart sink

Example Sentences

The less immense, more finite items, of a size allowing the mind to get a handhold, like nations, or space technology, or New York, are hard to think about without drifting toward heartsink.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

It was with a dreadful heartsink that he ran there.

From The Preacher of Cedar Mountain A Tale of the Open Country by Seton, Ernest Thompson