| 释义 |
heart-strings, n. pl.|ˈhɑːtstrɪŋz|
[f. heart n. + string in sense ‘sinew, tendon’.]
1. In old notions of Anatomy, the tendons or nerves supposed to brace and sustain the heart.
1483Cath. Angl. 177/1 An Hartstringe, precordia. 1530Palsgr. 229/2 Hartestrynges, ueines de cuevr. 1587Golding De Mornay xv. 238 The head..heart..Liuer..the Sinewes, Heartstrings, and Vaines come from those parts. 1643Prynne Rome's Master-P. (1644) 34 Stabbing [him] first in the mouth, next in the heart-strings. 1881Rossetti Ball. & Sonn. (1882) 33 Once she sprang as the heifer springs With the wolf's teeth at its red heart-strings.
2. transf. and fig.
1601Holland Pliny I. 30 To seek out gemmes..we plucke the very heart-strings out of her [the earth]. 1652R. Saunders Balm to heal Rel. Wounds 72 The heart⁓strings of..his..arguments are cut. 1659Rushw. Hist. Coll. I. 537 The Priviledges of this House..are the Heart⁓strings of the Commonwealth. 1896Daily News 4 June 6/2 The engineer..holding in his firm grasp the heartstrings of the ship.
b. esp. The most intense feelings or emotions; the deepest affections; the heart.
1596Spenser F.Q. iv. vi. 29 Her hart did leape and all her hart-strings tremble. a1625Fletcher Nice Valour i. i, The falsest woman, That ever broke man's heart-strings. 1742Fielding J. Andrews i. xiii, A young woman, whom he loved as tenderly as he did his heartstrings. 1857Livingstone Trav. Introd. 3 By his..winning ways he made the heartstrings of his children twine around him.
c. Often with allusion to stringed instruments of music.
16022nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. v. i. 1982 [A fiddler sings] How can he play whose heart stringes broken are? 1869Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cxi. 2 Our heart-strings are evermore getting out of tune. 1887Lady M. Majendie Precautions III. ii. 47, I will play on your heart-strings as I used to do. |