heartbreaking
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See also: heart-breaking
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Adjective
[edit]heartbreaking (comparative more heartbreaking, superlative most heartbreaking)
- That causes great grief, anguish or distress.
- 1941 April, “Notes and News: Railwaymen and Snow”, in Railway Magazine, page 177:
- Things went well with the clearing on Friday, but by Saturday, February 3, a 70 m.p.h. blizzard set in, and against such heartbreaking conditions, although an effort was made with the plough to keep open the sections cleared on the previous day, ground was gradually lost, [...].
Derived terms
[edit]- heartbreakingly
- heartbreakingness (uncommon)
Translations
[edit]That causes great grief, anguish or distress
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Noun
[edit]heartbreaking (plural heartbreakings)
- The breaking of a heart; great grief, anguish or distress.
- 1999, Karen Gayton Swisher, John Tippeconnic, Next Steps: Research and Practice to Advance Indian Education, page 17:
- One could argue that Eliot's "great heartbreakings" were the overt physical signs of the inner psychological transformations achieved through brainwashing, cultural attack, and epidemic mortality.