sick at heart

sick at heart

Filled with a deeply unpleasant emotion, such as grief, remorse, dejection, etc. I felt sick at heart to think that I may have contributed to her death in some way. Poor Tom's been sick at heart ever since his mother died.See also: heart, sick

*sick at heart

Fig. distressed and depressed. (*Typically: be ~; become ~; make someone ~.) I became sick at heart just looking at all the homeless children.See also: heart, sick

sick at heart

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. See also: heart, sick

sick at heart

Deeply depressed and unhappy. This term equates emotional misery with physical illness of the heart, the seat of emotions. It has been used since at least the sixteenth century, and appears both in this guise and as the adjective heartsick (John Skolton used it in Magnyfycence, 1526, “Yet I am not harte seke”).See also: heart, sick