heart of hearts

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

heart of hearts (plural hearts of hearts)

1. (idiomatic) One's innermost private feelings.
   • 1876, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], “At His Door”, in Joshua Haggard’s Daughter […], volume III, London: John Maxwell and Co. […], →OCLC, pages 180–181:

     Yet the darling sin is there in our heart of hearts; we hug it close—we hide it from every human eye. But in the still night-watches it comes forth like a serpent out of his hole, and rears its venomous crest, and stings us with the horror of our guilt.

   • 1896 November – 1897 May, Rudyard Kipling, chapter X, in “Captains Courageous”, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, published 1897, →OCLC:

     With the "Constance," which in his heart of hearts he loathed, departed the last remnant of Cheyne's millionairedom, and he gave himself up to an energetic idleness.

   • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter V, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

     She was grieved, and bitterly sorry for the man who was hurt so much. But still, in her heart of hearts, where the love should have burned, there was a blank.

Translations

one’s innermost private feelings

• Finnish: syvällä sisimmässään (adverb)
• French: for intérieur (fr)
• Italian: cuor proprio
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: dno srca (idiomatic)

• Spanish: en su fuero interno