Word.ws English Dictionary

heartwhole

UK/ˈhɑːthəʊl/

heartwhole adjective: undismayed, not abashed or frightened; healthy.

Adjective

heartwhole (comparative more heartwhole, superlative most heartwhole)

  1. (archaic) Undismayed, not abashed or frightened; healthy.
    • #*:Nay nay saide sire Tristram / Dynadan / neuer drede the / for I am herte hole / & of this wounde I shal soone be hole by the mercy of god […].1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xxxiiij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book IX
  2. Not in love; romantically unattached.
    • [T]he subject of love being artfully introduced by the widow, who had been directed to sound his inclinations, he rallied the passion with great ease and severity, and made no scruple of declaring himself heart-whole.1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC
    • She remained with her comrades till dusk, and participated with a certain zest in the dancing; though, being heart-whole as yet, she enjoyed treading a measure purely for its own sake; little divining when she saw "the soft torments, the bitter sweets, the pleasing pains, and the agreeable...1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 27
  3. Wholehearted, sincere.

Forms of heartwhole

comparativemore heartwhole
superlativemost heartwhole
alternative formheart-whole

Origin of heartwhole

From heart + whole.

Questions about heartwhole

What does heartwhole mean?
Heartwhole means undismayed, not abashed or frightened; healthy.
What part of speech is heartwhole?
Heartwhole is an adjective.
How do you pronounce heartwhole?
Heartwhole is pronounced /ˈhɑːthəʊl/ (UK).

Words near heartwhole in the dictionary

  1. heartwarmer
  2. heartwarmers
  3. heartwarming
  4. heartwarmingly
  5. heartwater
  6. heartwhole
  7. heartwise
  8. heartwood
  9. heartwoods
  10. heartworm
  11. heartworms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heartwhole (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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