"have one's heart in the right place" meaning in English

See have one's heart in the right place in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-have one's heart in the right place.ogg Forms: has one's heart in the right place [present, singular, third-person], having one's heart in the right place [participle, present], had one's heart in the right place [participle, past], had one's heart in the right place [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|have<has,,had> one's heart in the right place}} have one's heart in the right place (third-person singular simple present has one's heart in the right place, present participle having one's heart in the right place, simple past and past participle had one's heart in the right place)
  1. (idiomatic) To have good intentions. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: come from the right place, come from a good place Translations (to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned): sydän on paikallaan (Finnish), avoir bon fond (French), avoir bon cœur (French), helyén van a szíve (Hungarian), mieć dobre intencje [imperfective] (Polish), име́ть до́брые наме́рения (imétʹ dóbryje namérenija) [imperfective] (Russian)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "has one's heart in the right place",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "having one's heart in the right place",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "had one's heart in the right place",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "had one's heart in the right place",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "have<has,,had> one's heart in the right place"
      },
      "expansion": "have one's heart in the right place (third-person singular simple present has one's heart in the right place, present participle having one's heart in the right place, simple past and past participle had one's heart in the right place)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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          "kind": "other",
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "My brother doesn't always do the right thing, but he has his heart in the right place.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1823, Andrew Cherry, The Travellers:",
          "text": "Mr. Cherry has thought proper to place most of his compliments to England in the mouth of an Irishman, a facetious gentleman, full of generosity and blunders, “with a head that may err, but a heart in the right place\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1835, Thomas Chalmers, On the Evils which the Established Church in Edinburgh Has Already Suffered […] :",
          "text": "No one amongst them, as far as I know, with his heart in the right place, stood up and asked in council, What is to become of the poor who cannot pay these high rents?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan, →OCLC, page 14:",
          "text": "\"Why Jack, old fellow, I wronged you!\" I exclaimed,—\"your heart is in the right place after all.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have good intentions."
      ],
      "id": "en-have_one's_heart_in_the_right_place-en-verb-Xy6YPs6c",
      "links": [
        [
          "good",
          "good"
        ],
        [
          "intention",
          "intention"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To have good intentions."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "come from the right place"
        },
        {
          "word": "come from a good place"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned",
          "word": "sydän on paikallaan"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned",
          "word": "avoir bon fond"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned",
          "word": "avoir bon cœur"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned",
          "word": "helyén van a szíve"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "mieć dobre intencje"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "imétʹ dóbryje namérenija",
          "sense": "to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "име́ть до́брые наме́рения"
        }
      ]
    }
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}
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      "form": "has one's heart in the right place",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "having one's heart in the right place",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
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    },
    {
      "form": "had one's heart in the right place",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "had one's heart in the right place",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "have<has,,had> one's heart in the right place"
      },
      "expansion": "have one's heart in the right place (third-person singular simple present has one's heart in the right place, present participle having one's heart in the right place, simple past and past participle had one's heart in the right place)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "come from the right place"
    },
    {
      "word": "come from a good place"
    }
  ],
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        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with Hungarian translations",
        "Terms with Polish translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "My brother doesn't always do the right thing, but he has his heart in the right place.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1823, Andrew Cherry, The Travellers:",
          "text": "Mr. Cherry has thought proper to place most of his compliments to England in the mouth of an Irishman, a facetious gentleman, full of generosity and blunders, “with a head that may err, but a heart in the right place\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1835, Thomas Chalmers, On the Evils which the Established Church in Edinburgh Has Already Suffered […] :",
          "text": "No one amongst them, as far as I know, with his heart in the right place, stood up and asked in council, What is to become of the poor who cannot pay these high rents?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan, →OCLC, page 14:",
          "text": "\"Why Jack, old fellow, I wronged you!\" I exclaimed,—\"your heart is in the right place after all.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have good intentions."
      ],
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        [
          "good",
          "good"
        ],
        [
          "intention",
          "intention"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To have good intentions."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/En-au-have_one%27s_heart_in_the_right_place.ogg"
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned",
      "word": "sydän on paikallaan"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned",
      "word": "avoir bon fond"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned",
      "word": "avoir bon cœur"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned",
      "word": "helyén van a szíve"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "mieć dobre intencje"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "imétʹ dóbryje namérenija",
      "sense": "to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "име́ть до́брые наме́рения"
    }
  ],
  "word": "have one's heart in the right place"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). 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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