heartstrings
Tugged emotional cords
Heartstrings are the deep emotions, especially love, sympathy, or sentimental attachment.
The word appears almost exclusively in the phrase tug at the heartstrings or pull at the heartstrings, describing something that evokes tender feelings: The documentary about orphaned animals really tugged at my heartstrings.
The image is of emotions as strings that can be plucked or pulled.
Intense fond attachment
- attachmentConnection or fondness
- fondnessWarm liking or affection
- devotionDeep, loyal commitment
- adorationProfound loving regard
tenderness · warmth · intimacy · cherish · bonding · endearment · kinship · affinity
Longing for the past
- yearningIntense prolonged craving
- longingIntense, persistent desire
- wistfulnessTender sadness for absence
- melancholySubdued, lasting sadness
reminiscence · bittersweet · poignant · homesick · evocative · tender · lachrymose · mawkish
Sharing another's emotions
- sympathyCompassionate understanding of others
- pitySympathy for misfortune
- kindnessConsiderate, caring disposition
- mercyCompassion toward offenders
benevolence · charity · generosity · altruism · humanity · solidarity · care · concern
Short forceful pull
- pullForce toward oneself
- play onContinue or manipulate
- exploitNotable act or abuse
- manipulateControl through clever influence
coercion · emotional appeal · guilt trip · persuasion · influence · puppeteer · scheming · calculated
love
Intense fond attachment
- attachmentConnection or fondness
- fondnessWarm liking or affection
- devotionDeep, loyal commitment
adoration · tenderness · warmth · intimacy · cherish · bonding · endearment · kinship · affinity · closeness
nostalgia
Longing for the past
- yearningIntense prolonged craving
- longingIntense, persistent desire
- wistfulnessTender sadness for absence
melancholy · reminiscence · bittersweet · poignant · homesick · evocative · tender · lachrymose · mawkish · schmaltzy
empathy
Sharing another's emotions
- sympathyCompassionate understanding of others
- pitySympathy for misfortune
- kindnessConsiderate, caring disposition
mercy · benevolence · charity · generosity · altruism · humanity · solidarity · care · concern · goodwill
tug
Short forceful pull
manipulate · coercion · emotional appeal · guilt trip · persuasion · influence · puppeteer · scheming · calculated · ploy
exposed
Out in open
defenseless · raw · unguarded · openness · bare · tender · emotional · susceptible · wounded · hurt
- emotional appealsguilt trip, flattery, nostalgia, outrage, scare tactics
- body idiomsgut feeling, gut instinct, backbone, hard head, big mouth
- love metaphorsCupid, butterflies, lovesick, swept off feet, soulmate
- emotional rhetoricpathos, emotional appeal, appeals to emotion, loaded language, loaded words
- sentimentalitymawkish, schmaltzy, saccharine, treacly, cloying
- heart phraseslove quotes
heartstringscold heart
Lack of compassion
hardheartedness · callousness · heart of stone · hard-heartedness · emotional detachment
heartstringspure reason
Intellect independent of experience
head · rationality · calculation · intellect · analytical mind