heart and soul
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Great enthusiasm or the core.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Now, as he pushed himself into her, she cried out with joy, locking her arms round his neck and thrusting herself forward, making a noise like an animal devouring him, wanting him heart and soul.
And so he went from day to day, from one business deal to the next, pouring his heart and soul into his land agency business, trying to forget, always trying to forget, but being made to remember all the more.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “Irreversible binomial” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29). Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “heart and soul” mean?
Great enthusiasm or the core.
Is “heart and soul” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.