ˈhard-hearted, a.
[f. hard heart + -ed2.]
Having a hard heart; incapable of being moved to pity or tenderness; unfeeling; unmerciful.
| c 1205 Lay. 11990 Nes næuere na mon iboren..þæt hæleð weore swa stærc Ne swa hærd iheorted. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 7505 Here es no man lyland Swa hard-herted. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. ii. metr. vi. 43 (Camb. MS.) He was so hard hertyd, þat he myhte ben domes man or Iuge of hyr dede beaute. c 1430 Hymns Virg. (1867) 126 Y cowde not wepe, y was so hard hertyd. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa ii. 51 Such a..horrible conflicte, that..would have affrighted any man, were he never so hard harted. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 736 Neither can the hard-hearted Rockes breake these yeelding Vessels. 1708 Prior Turtle & Sparrow 287 She soon grew sullen; I hard-hearted. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 400 That he might die the same hardhearted, wicked Jeffreys that he had lived. |
Hence hardˈheartedly adv.; hardˈheartedness.
| 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. i. 3 Because of their hard-hartednesse and stubbornesse. Ibid. clxxxiv. 1142 Let vs deale not so hardheartedlie. 1682 Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. 67 The dens..where malice, hardheartedness, and oppression love to dwell. 1810 Bentham Packing (1821) 186 These are the sort of persons whom so hardheartedly..we see him thus devising plans for getting rid of. 1837 Syd. Smith Wks. (1867) II. 270 A hardheartedness produced by the long enjoyment of wealth and power. |