by heart
35
2.5
- idiom
:
de memoria
- Bet you know it off by heart, do you?
- learn by heart
- know by heart
I knew old music by heart and could say the whole text by heart.
- I knew old music by heart and could say the whole text by heart.
- So I always say you should know at least three to four recipes off by heart.
- So I, there are a lot of prayers that you're supposed to be able to say by heart and I can't most of them I can't say, I can't remember by heart.
- I I know them by heart, but I'd like to hear you say them.
- So on the outside of the script it says Moon Song, but I know all the words by heart.
- I didn't like those as much as Bartholomew Covens, but but I used to know Bartholomew Covens by heart when I was young.
- I was such a little Joe Weller nerd as a kid, like would know, know all the songs like of by heart.
- You, you know the thing by heart and then you, you tell it and it's not the agony doesn't need to be the agony.
Examples
-
I know all the words by heart.
-
We knew that place by heart and our parents trusted us.
-
I know it by heart.
-
I got to learn all their names by heart.
-
And she had to know them all by heart when the time came.
-
I know them all by heart, Paul, all eight of them.
Fiction book (1990) -
I have read it so many times I know it by heart.
Fiction book (1998) -
We knew all the lyrics by heart.
-
I know your catalog almost by heart.
-
I can recite the poem by heart after practicing it for days.
Synonyms
1
3.3
Using what you remember without reading or looking
How Memorized
35
2.5
1
3.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
by + heart
The meaning 'from memory' is not compositionally derived from the literal senses of 'by' and 'heart' — 'heart' primarily denotes the organ or centre and does not transparently signal memorization. This is an idiomatic metaphorical extension (learned usage) rather than a predictable combination, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would unlikely infer the meaning.
Etymology
By heart may come from the old idea that the heart held people’s memory, not the head. One popular story says learning something so well made it feel like it was inside your heart, not on a page, so by heart means 'from memory'.