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HEART AND SOUL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience
Example:
the nub of the story
Synonyms:
center; centre; core; essence; gist; heart; heart and soul; inwardness; kernel; marrow; meat; nitty-gritty; nub; pith; substance; sum
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("heart and soul" is a kind of...):
cognitive content; content; mental object (the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "heart and soul"):
bare bones ((plural) the most basic facts or elements)
hypostasis ((metaphysics) essential nature or underlying reality)
haecceity; quiddity (the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other)
quintessence (the purest and most concentrated essence of something)
stuff (a critically important or characteristic component)
II. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
With complete faith
Example:
she was with him heart and soul
Synonyms:
body and soul; heart and soul
Classified under:
Context examples:
Meg looked very like a rose herself, for all that was best and sweetest in heart and soul seemed to bloom into her face that day, making it fair and tender, with a charm more beautiful than beauty.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and 'fall into a vortex', as she expressed it, writing away at her novel with all her heart and soul, for till that was finished she could find no peace.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I pray he may, and try to be all he believes me, for I love my gallant captain with all my heart and soul and might, and never will desert him, while God lets us be together.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
It was not true, she knew that and tried to put it away, but the natural craving for affection was strong, and Amy's happiness woke the hungry longing for someone to 'love with heart and soul, and cling to while God let them be together'.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
