bleeding heart
1
5.5
- noun
- /ˈbliːdɪŋ hɑrt/
:
corazón sangrante
- In spring, my garden blooms with bleeding hearts, their heart-shaped flowers brightening the landscape.
Examples
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We planted bleeding hearts alongside the walkway to create a picturesque entrance to our home.
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Bleeding hearts
Blog text (15) -
The delicate pink flowers of the bleeding heart plant add charm to any shaded garden area.
Synonyms
A garden plant with deep pink, drooping heart-shaped flowers grown for decoration
A garden plant with deep pink, drooping, heart-shaped flowers often called bleeding heart
A garden plant with deep pink, drooping heart-shaped flowers
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'heart' (centre of emotions/compassion) with the metaphorical image of 'bleeding', so a learner who knows both words can usually infer a general sense of strong sympathy or emotional pain. However, the specific idiomatic nuance — that the sympathy is excessive and subject to criticism — is not fully predictable from the parts, making the expression only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Bleeding heart comes from the flower that looks like a hanging heart with a red drop under it, as if the heart were bleeding. So the name refers to a pretty 'garden plant'.