# eat one's heart out

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/eat-ones-heart-out
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

To feel overwhelming sorrow, jealousy, or longing; to grieve.

## Examples

- She eats her heart out over her lost love.
- He moved on quickly, but she still eats her heart out whenever she sees them together.
- In the quiet months that followed, she would eat her heart out at the window, watching the empty road where no letter ever came.

## Origin

Disputed. Three schools of thought exist: * From "This will eat your heart out.", suggesting that the recipient of the taunt will have their heart, the core of their being, eaten out with desire, bitterness, or pain. * From the 16th century "to eat one's own heart" (to suffer in silence from anguish or grief), possibly from the Bible "to eat one's own flesh" (to be lazy). The phrase "to eat one's heart out" appears as a formulaic phrase in the Iliad, meaning to experience extreme grief. (For instance, Iliad.24.128, and many other locations.) * When used as the taunt "Eat your heart out, [someone]!" a suggestion that the recipient of the taunt "eat up" as much as they like. Figuratively more akin to "experience me besting you." (disputed)

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.