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to steal someone's heart

to steal someone's heart

1 3.6
To make someone feel love or a strong liking for you
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : robar el corazón
  • - Well, she saved his life and stole his heart.

Examples

Synonyms

to capture
vsto steal someone's heart
37 3.0

To attract and hold someone's interest or affection

wins love more unexpectedly and charmingly not just holding interest
to win hearts
vsto steal someone's heart
4 3.3

To make people like and admire you

wins an individual's affection unexpectedly and with charm rather than broad admiration
to run off with someone's heart
vsto steal someone's heart
  • Informal
7.4

Make a person fall deeply and quickly in love with you

wins love unexpectedly using charm rather than suddenness
to sweep off someone's feet
vsto steal someone's heart
  • Informal
4.5

Make someone feel very impressed and strongly attracted

wins affection by charm and surprise rather than dramatic show

Antonyms

123 6.7

To make someone feel alone and lose support from others

21 4.2

Make someone or something move back and stay away, often by using force

How Loved

to steal someone's heart
  • Informal
1 3.6
to capture
37 3.0
to attract
991 1.9

Surface Forms

stealing someone's heart present participle
steals someone's heart third person singular
stolen someone's heart past participle

Morphology

steal + someone's + heart

The sense 'to win someone’s affection' is directly inferable from combining 'steal' (take, often secretly) with 'heart' (the seat of emotions/love): together they plausibly mean 'take someone's feelings.' This metaphorical mapping (heart = affection, steal = take) is common cross-linguistically and follows a transparent compositional pattern that a B1 learner who knows the constituents can reasonably deduce.

Etymology

The idiom steal someone's heart comes from the image of a thief who quietly steals a small treasure: the heart stands for a person's love and feelings. So, when someone steals your heart, they have won your love or deep affection.