bleeding heart

1. Any of various perennial herbs of the genera Dicentra and Lamprocapnos, especially L. spectabilis, widely cultivated for its arching clusters of pink to red or white heart-shaped flowers.

2. A person who is considered excessively sympathetic toward those who claim to be underprivileged or exploited.

bleed′ing-heart′ adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Translations

bleeding-heart

[ˌbliːdɪŋˈhɑːt] ADJ (fig) bleeding-heart liberal → liberal mf de gran corazón

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

bleeding-heart

adj → sentimental; bleeding-heart Liberal → sentimentaler Liberaler, sentimentale Liberale

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

There were rosy bleeding-hearts and great splendid crimson peonies; white, fragrant narcissi and thorny, sweet Scotch roses; pink and blue and white columbines and lilac-tinted Bouncing Bets; clumps of southernwood and ribbon grass and mint; purple Adam-and-Eve, daffodils, and masses of sweet clover white with its delicate, fragrant, feathery sprays; scarlet lightning that shot its fiery lances over prim white musk-flowers; a garden it was where sunshine lingered and bees hummed, and winds, beguiled into loitering, purred and rustled.

View in context

I've no doubt I will incur criticism and derision for what I'm about to say from bleeding-heart liberals, but I'm going to say it anyway.

Be harsh with the violent

Bleeding-heart liberalism goes out the window when armed men break in.

Caution be damned... I'd put up a fight

I'm no stranger to death and am a war veteran, so this is not a bleeding-heart letter.

No hunting, just guns!

BLEEDING-HEART liberals are not alone in decrying the CIA's use of torture in the interrogation of Islamic terror suspects.

Ask yourself who the real bad guys are

THE wide-eyed innocents of Venky's may have deserved much of the stick which has headed their way this season but nobody merits the shabby bleeding-heart story pedalled by Chris Samba.

SAMBA HUMBUG

Their prime motivation appears to be to appease their Lib-Dem partners, and the "bleeding-heart" civil liberties lobby, whilst ignoring advice of the security services, at the sharp end of the campaign against terror.

Anti terror lunacy; Your shout

Ordinary people are fed-up hearing from bleeding-heart human rights activists and liberal lawyers harping on about the need to look after the crooks and criminals who have forfeited their right to mingle in civilised society.

The criminal cost of jail TV; RecordView