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after one's own heart. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
after one's own heart, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
after one's own heart in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From after (“in imitation of; following”) + one’s + own + heart (“disposition; personality”), a reference to 1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22 in the Bible: see the 1526 and 1611 quotations.
Pronunciation
Prepositional phrase
after one's own heart
- (idiomatic) Of a person: having the same disposition, feelings, or opinions as oneself.
- Synonyms: after one's heart, after one's own soul
1809, Diedrich Knickerbocker [pseudonym; Washington Irving], chapter III, in A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. , volume I, New York, N.Y.: Inskeep & Bradford, , →OCLC, book III, pages 141–142:[…] I turn with great complacency to the fourth class of my readers, who are men, or, if possible, women, after my own heart; grave, philosophical and investigating; fond of analyzing characters, of taking a start from first causes, and so hunting a nation down, through all the mazes of innovation and improvement.
1900, Homer, “Book IV”, in Samuel Butler, transl., The Odyssey: Rendered into English Prose for the Use of Those who Cannot Read the Original, London: A C. Fifield, →OCLC, page 41:Look, Pisistratus, man after my own heart, see the gleam of bronze and gold—of amber, ivory, and silver. Everything is so splendid that it is like seeing the palace of Olympian Jove. I am lost in admiration.
1913 December – 1914 March, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “New Allies”, in The Warlord of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published September 1919, →OCLC, page 133:I found the father of Thuvia a man after my own heart, and that night saw the beginning of a friendship which has grown until it is second only to that which obtains between Tars Tarkas, the green Jeddak of Thark, and myself.
2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:“I am impressed, young Frank,” began the master criminal. “Breaking into my house in the dead of night. You are a boy after my own heart. You need to come and live here with me and your mother. I could be the father you never had. I could train you up. Teach you everything I know. You could become a master criminal like me. One day all this could be yours.”
- (idiomatic) Of a situation or thing: according to, or appealing to, one's own desire, liking, or taste.
- Synonyms: after one's heart, after one's own soul
1885, Hugh Conway [pseudonym; Frederick John Fargus], “Gastronomic and Erotic”, in A Family Affair , volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, pages 244–245:In this particular party, small as it was, culture, learning, art, arms, landed interest and hereditary sway were properly personified. It was, indeed, a representative gathering after the Talberts' own hearts.
1927, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, “My Choice”, in Mahadev Desai, transl., The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volume I, Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Press, →OCLC, part I, page 119:During these wanderings I once hit on a vegetarian restaurant in Farringdon Street. The sight of it filled me with the same joy that a child feels on getting a thing after its own heart. […] This was my first hearty meal since my arrival in England.
Translations
of a person: having the same disposition, feelings, or opinions as oneself
of a situation or thing: according to, or appealing to, one’s own desire, liking, or taste
See also
References
- ^ “after a person’s (own) heart, phrase” under “heart, n., int., and adv.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2021; “after one's own heart, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.