"bless someone's heart" meaning in English

See bless someone's heart in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Etymology: A conventional shortening of a wish May God bless (your/her/his/etc) heart. Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} bless someone's heart
  1. Used to express gratitude. (Compare bless you, God bless you.) Synonyms (expression of gratitude): bless you
    Sense id: en-bless_someone's_heart-en-phrase-v0mFtv0U Disambiguation of 'expression of gratitude': 58 42
  2. (especially Southern US) Used to soften criticism or express pity. (Compare the British usage of bless (“expression of endearment or belittlement”).) Tags: Southern-US, especially Synonyms (criticism or pity): bless someone's cotton socks [British]
    Sense id: en-bless_someone's_heart-en-phrase-~AFqg7fV Categories (other): Southern US English Disambiguation of 'criticism or pity': 6 94
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: bless [interjection], God love someone

Download JSON data for bless someone's heart meaning in English (2.5kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [],
  "etymology_text": "A conventional shortening of a wish May God bless (your/her/his/etc) heart.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "bless someone's heart",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used to express gratitude. (Compare bless you, God bless you.)"
      ],
      "id": "en-bless_someone's_heart-en-phrase-v0mFtv0U",
      "links": [
        [
          "bless you",
          "bless you"
        ],
        [
          "God bless you",
          "God bless you"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "58 42",
          "sense": "expression of gratitude",
          "word": "bless you"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Southern US English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, Hack Proofing Your Identity In The Information Age, page 9",
          "text": "We just moved my dad to a senior community, and I need to make sure he changed his gas service over to his new address. Bless his heart—he doesn't remember things the way he used to!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Larry Michael Ellis, The Life and Legend of Robert \"Black Bob\" Renfro",
          "text": "“Bob had my permission to travel with Mister Jackson. Mister Jackson asked for his help, and I agreed.”\n“They must have tricked you, bless your heart. How could you know what they were plotting,” Mistress Dean said in her most sympathetic tone.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Jerry Deriso, Save Me A Place In Heaven",
          "text": "\"Bless her heart, she doesn't have the fashion sense God gave a billygoat.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "My dog can't fit in her puppy bed anymore, but she still tries, bless her heart."
        },
        {
          "text": "They're having a hard time getting used to the food down here. They don't like grits — bless their hearts, they don't even like sweet tea."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to soften criticism or express pity. (Compare the British usage of bless (“expression of endearment or belittlement”).)"
      ],
      "id": "en-bless_someone's_heart-en-phrase-~AFqg7fV",
      "links": [
        [
          "bless",
          "bless#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(especially Southern US) Used to soften criticism or express pity. (Compare the British usage of bless (“expression of endearment or belittlement”).)"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "6 94",
          "sense": "criticism or pity",
          "tags": [
            "British"
          ],
          "word": "bless someone's cotton socks"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Southern-US",
        "especially"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "46 54",
      "tags": [
        "interjection"
      ],
      "word": "bless"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "46 54",
      "word": "God love someone"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bless someone's heart"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [],
  "etymology_text": "A conventional shortening of a wish May God bless (your/her/his/etc) heart.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "bless someone's heart",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used to express gratitude. (Compare bless you, God bless you.)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "bless you",
          "bless you"
        ],
        [
          "God bless you",
          "God bless you"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "Southern US English"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, Hack Proofing Your Identity In The Information Age, page 9",
          "text": "We just moved my dad to a senior community, and I need to make sure he changed his gas service over to his new address. Bless his heart—he doesn't remember things the way he used to!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Larry Michael Ellis, The Life and Legend of Robert \"Black Bob\" Renfro",
          "text": "“Bob had my permission to travel with Mister Jackson. Mister Jackson asked for his help, and I agreed.”\n“They must have tricked you, bless your heart. How could you know what they were plotting,” Mistress Dean said in her most sympathetic tone.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Jerry Deriso, Save Me A Place In Heaven",
          "text": "\"Bless her heart, she doesn't have the fashion sense God gave a billygoat.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "My dog can't fit in her puppy bed anymore, but she still tries, bless her heart."
        },
        {
          "text": "They're having a hard time getting used to the food down here. They don't like grits — bless their hearts, they don't even like sweet tea."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to soften criticism or express pity. (Compare the British usage of bless (“expression of endearment or belittlement”).)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "bless",
          "bless#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(especially Southern US) Used to soften criticism or express pity. (Compare the British usage of bless (“expression of endearment or belittlement”).)"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Southern-US",
        "especially"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "interjection"
      ],
      "word": "bless"
    },
    {
      "sense": "expression of gratitude",
      "word": "bless you"
    },
    {
      "sense": "criticism or pity",
      "tags": [
        "British"
      ],
      "word": "bless someone's cotton socks"
    },
    {
      "word": "God love someone"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bless someone's heart"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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