Word.ws English Dictionary

heartsink patient

heartsink patient noun: a recurring patient who cannot be definitively cured, such as one whose condition is undiagnosable or untreatable or who presents nebulous symptoms.

Noun

heartsink patient (plural heartsink patients)

  1. (derogatory, informal) A recurring patient who cannot be definitively cured, such as one whose condition is undiagnosable or untreatable or who presents nebulous symptoms.

Forms of heartsink patient

pluralheartsink patients

Origin of heartsink patient

From the idea that the patient's approach makes the doctor's heart sink in dread.

Questions about heartsink patient

What does heartsink patient mean?
Heartsink patient means a recurring patient who cannot be definitively cured, such as one whose condition is undiagnosable or untreatable or who presents nebulous symptoms.
What part of speech is heartsink patient?
Heartsink patient is a noun.
What is the plural of heartsink patient?
The plural of heartsink patient is heartsink patients.

Words near heartsink patient in the dictionary

  1. heartsick
  2. heartsickening
  3. heartsickness
  4. heartsicknesses
  5. heartsink
  6. heartsink patient
  7. heartsink patients
  8. heartsinks
  9. heartsome
  10. heartsomely
  11. heartsomeness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heartsink patient (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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Cite this entry: “heartsink patient.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/heartsink_patient. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.