heartthrob

English

Alternative forms

• heart throb (obsolete)
• heart-throb

Etymology

From heart +‎ throb.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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Noun

heartthrob (plural heartthrobs)

1. A heartbeat.
2. The object of one’s desires or infatuation; a sweetheart.
3. A handsome male celebrity.
   • 2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club‎^[1], archived from the original on 6 August 2020:

     And really, Michael Jackson is a more fitting aspiration for the similarly sexless would-be-former teen heartthrob, who’s compared himself to the late King Of Pop (perhaps a bit prematurely) on several occasions and sings in a Jackson-like croon over a sample of “We’ve Got A Good Thing Going” on Believe’s “Die In Your Arms.”

Translations

heartbeat

• Dutch: hartslag (nl)
• Finnish: sydämentykytys (fi)
• German: Herzschlag (de) m
• Polish: bicie serca n
• Portuguese: batimento cardíaco
• Russian: сердцебие́ние (ru) n (serdcebijénije)

sweetheart

• Italian: rubacuori (it)
• Maori: kaitokomauri, kuku o te manawa

handsome male celebrity

• Icelandic: hjartaknúsari