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.
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 177/1 An Hartstringe, precordia. 1530 Palsgr. 229/2 Hartestrynges, ueines de cuevr. 1587 Golding De Mornay xv. 238 The head..heart..Liuer..the Sinewes, Heartstrings, and Vaines come from those parts. 1643 Prynne Rome's Master-P. (1644) 34 Stabbing [him] first in the mouth, next in the heart-strings. 1881 Rossetti 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.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 30 To seek out gemmes..we plucke the very heart-strings out of her [the earth]. 1652 R. Saunders Balm to heal Rel. Wounds 72 The heart⁓strings of..his..arguments are cut. 1659 Rushw. Hist. Coll. I. 537 The Priviledges of this House..are the Heart⁓strings of the Commonwealth. 1896 Daily 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.
| 1596 Spenser F.Q. iv. vi. 29 Her hart did leape and all her hart-strings tremble. a 1625 Fletcher Nice Valour i. i, The falsest woman, That ever broke man's heart-strings. 1742 Fielding J. Andrews i. xiii, A young woman, whom he loved as tenderly as he did his heartstrings. 1857 Livingstone 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.
| 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. v. i. 1982 [A fiddler sings] How can he play whose heart stringes broken are? 1869 Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cxi. 2 Our heart-strings are evermore getting out of tune. 1887 Lady M. Majendie Precautions III. ii. 47, I will play on your heart-strings as I used to do. |