eat one's heart out

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

to feel intense envy or longing

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

cảm thấy ghen tị hoặc khao khát mạnh mẽ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: consume one's own heart
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

He's eating his heart out over her success

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

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 “eat one's heart out” mean?

to feel intense envy or longing Literally: consume one's own heart

Is “eat one's heart out” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.