break someone's heart
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
cause someone intense emotional pain
Literally: shatter a heart
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Nothing mattered any more — except the truth that was breaking her heart.
Da da da da da that's love and I can't believe it's true da da you better stop before you go and break my heart.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “break someone's heart” mean?
cause someone intense emotional pain Literally: shatter a heart
Is “break someone's heart” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.