Word.ws English Dictionary

carry one's heart upon one's sleeve

carry one's heart upon one's sleeve is the alternative form of wear one's heart on one's sleeve.

Meaning of wear one's heart on one's sleeve

Verb

wear one's heart on one's sleeve (third-person singular simple present wears one's heart on one's sleeve, present participle wearing one's heart on one's sleeve, simple past wore one's heart on one's sleeve, past participle worn one's heart on one's sleeve)

  1. (idiomatic) To be very transparent, open, or forthright about one's emotions.
    • Iago: For when my outward action doth demonstrate
      The native act and figure of my heart
      In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
      But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
      For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    Synonyms:
    to be an open book

Forms of carry one's heart upon one's sleeve

third-person singular presentcarries one's heart upon one's sleeve
present participlecarrying one's heart upon one's sleeve
past participlecarried one's heart upon one's sleeve
pastcarried one's heart upon one's sleeve

Questions about carry one's heart upon one's sleeve

What is carry one's heart upon one's sleeve the alternative form of?
Carry one's heart upon one's sleeve is the alternative form of wear one's heart on one's sleeve.

Words near carry one's heart upon one's sleeve in the dictionary

  1. carry me out and bury me decently
  2. carry off
  3. carry on
  4. carry on like a pork chop
  5. carry one's heart on one's sleeve
  6. carry one's heart upon one's sleeve
  7. carry one's own hide to market
  8. carry one's own weight
  9. carry one's point
  10. carry one's weight
  11. carry oneself

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: carry one's heart upon one's sleeve (page history and authors); wear one's heart on one's sleeve (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “carry one's heart upon one's sleeve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/carry_one%27s_heart_upon_one%27s_sleeve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.