sick at heart

1. Grieving, very disappointed, dejected, as in We were sick at heart when we learned of her predicament. This idiom, which transfers heart disease to unhappiness, was first recorded in 1581.

Related Words

• affecting 
• distressing www.thesaurus.com
• heart-wrenching 
• heartrending 
• lugubrious 
• melancholy 
• mournful 
• painful 
• plaintive 
• sad 
• sorry