heartstrings

• heart-strings, heart strings

From heart +‎ strings.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑːtstɹɪŋz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

heartstrings pl (plural only)

1. (obsolete, anatomy) The tendons once thought to brace the heart. [15th–19th c.]
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
     , I.iii.2.4:

     The midriff and heart-strings do burn and beat very fearfully, and when this vapour or fume is stirred, flieth upward, the heart itself beats […].

2. (figurative) One's deepest emotions or inner feelings. [from 16th c.]

   The sad eyes of the orphan tugged at my heartstrings.

3. (anatomy) The cord-like tendons that connect the papillary muscles to the tricuspid valve and the mitral valve in the heart.

   Synonym: chordae tendineae

   • 2002, Beryl Stretch, BTEC National Health Studies:

     These are the so-called heartstrings or chordae tendineae.

   • 2014, Crissy Shreve, BMom:

     As a result, one or more of his chordae tendineae, or heartstrings, ruptured.

• play on someone's heartstrings
• pull at someone's heartstrings