Heartache

Definitions

Emotional distress or pain, often caused by a loved one or their absence.

countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“[…]: to dye, to ſleepe, / No more; and by a ſleepe, to ſay we end⟳ / The Heart-ake, and the thouſand Naturall ſhockes / That Fleſh is heyre too?”

““Well done, sister! I honour your esprit du corps. When I am a wife, I mean⟳ to be just as staunch myself; and I wish⟳ my friends in general would be so too. It would save⟳ me many a heart ache.””

“She was carrying an armful of Bibles for her class, and such was her view⟳ of life that events which produced heartache in others wrought beatific smiles upon her—an enviable result⟳, although, in the opinion of Angel, it was obtained by a curiously unnatural sacrifice of humanity to mysticism.”

“Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give⟳ some chance reader a few hours' relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey.”

CEFR level