Word.ws English Dictionary

setting one's heart on

setting one's heart on is the present participle and gerund of set one's heart on.

Meaning of set one's heart on

Verb

set one's heart on (third-person singular simple present sets one's heart on, present participle setting one's heart on, simple past and past participle set one's heart on)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To desire with intensity and commitment, to earnestly long for.
    • With all the willful eagerness of a child she set her heart on that visit, and from morning till night she would talk with her little boys of the journey to what seemed to her the brightest, most sacred spot on earth, next to her present home.1856, T. S. Arthur, “A True Tale of Life”, in The Wedding Guest

Questions about setting one's heart on

What is setting one's heart on the present participle and gerund of?
Setting one's heart on is the present participle and gerund of set one's heart on.

Words near setting one's heart on in the dictionary

  1. setting on foot
  2. setting one's cap at
  3. setting one's face against
  4. setting one's hair on fire
  5. setting one's hand to
  6. setting one's heart on
  7. setting one's shoulder to the wheel
  8. setting one's sights
  9. setting one's watch back
  10. setting one's watch by someone
  11. setting onto

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: setting one's heart on (page history and authors); set one's heart on (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: “setting one's heart on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/setting_one%27s_heart_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.