Word.ws English Dictionary

bless someone's heart

bless someone's heart phrase: used to express gratitude. (Compare bless you, God bless you.).

Phrase

bless someone's heart

  1. Used to express gratitude. (Compare bless you, God bless you.)
  2. Used to express affection.
    • Bless his innocent heart, he looks too sweet for anything in his little short dresses, with his dear feet sticking out.1917, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams
  3. (Southern US, especially) Used to soften criticism or express pity. (Compare the British usage of bless (expression of endearment or belittlement).)
    • My dog can't fit in her puppy bed anymore, but she still tries, bless her heart.
    • 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.
  4. (Southern US, especially) Used sarcastically to express contempt.

Synonyms of bless someone's heart

Origin of bless someone's heart

A conventional shortening of a wish May God bless (your/her/his/etc) heart.

Questions about bless someone's heart

What does bless someone's heart mean?
Bless someone's heart means used to express gratitude. (Compare bless you, God bless you.).
What part of speech is bless someone's heart?
Bless someone's heart is a phrase.

Words near bless someone's heart in the dictionary

  1. bless my soul
  2. bless oneself
  3. bless out
  4. bless someone with
  5. bless someone's cotton socks
  6. bless someone's heart
  7. bless someone's little cotton socks
  8. bless up
  9. bless us
  10. bless you
  11. bless'd

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bless someone's heart (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bless someone's heart.wav.

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