Word.ws English Dictionary

playing on someone's heartstrings

playing on someone's heartstrings is the present participle and gerund of play on someone's heartstrings.

Meaning of play on someone's heartstrings

Verb

play on someone's heartstrings (third-person singular simple present plays on someone's heartstrings, present participle playing on someone's heartstrings, simple past and past participle played on someone's heartstrings)

  1. (idiomatic) To produce a strong emotional effect on someone, especially of compassion, love or sadness.
    • I love you more each day
      I love the music you play on my heartstrings
      I feel you in every way
      Reach for touch, you play on my heartstrings1986, “Heartstrings”, performed by Berlin

Questions about playing on someone's heartstrings

What is playing on someone's heartstrings the present participle and gerund of?
Playing on someone's heartstrings is the present participle and gerund of play on someone's heartstrings.

Words near playing on someone's heartstrings in the dictionary

  1. playing off
  2. playing Old Gooseberry
  3. playing Old Harry
  4. playing Old Harry with
  5. playing on
  6. playing on someone's heartstrings
  7. playing one against another
  8. playing one's cards right
  9. playing one's cards well
  10. playing one's guts out
  11. playing one's hand right

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playing on someone's heartstrings (page history and authors); play on someone's heartstrings (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: “playing on someone's heartstrings.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/playing_on_someone%27s_heartstrings. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.