Meaning & use
belt your heart out
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Meaning
phraseidiominformal
To sing with great energy, enthusiasm, and volume, often without holding back.
Grammar: The possessive pronoun changes with the subject: I belt my heart out, she belts her heart out. It is not used in the passive.
Patterns
- belt your heart out
- belt his/her/their heart out
At the karaoke bar, she grabbed the microphone and belted her heart out.
He belted his heart out in the shower, not caring who heard.
The choir belted their hearts out during the final song.
Common combinations
- sing your heart out
- She sang her heart out at the concert.
- belt out a song
- He belted out a song that everyone knew.
- belt it out
- Come on, belt it out! We can't hear you.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sing loudly
- A plain description; it does not carry the same idea of enthusiasm and energy.
- wail
- Often suggests a sad or high-pitched sound, not necessarily energetic or happy.
Opposites
Word family
- belt verb
- To sing or play something loudly and forcefully.
Commonly confused: belt your heart out or belt out?
belt your heart out vs belt out
This phrasal verb means to sing a particular song loudly, while 'belt your heart out' emphasizes singing with all your energy, not a specific song.
Practice
Which sentence uses the idiom 'belt your heart out' correctly?
Choose one answer.
The idiom is used with a possessive pronoun that matches the subject and does not take a direct object. Option C follows this pattern. Option An is wrong because the idiom is for singing, not playing an instrument. Option B incorrectly adds a direct object ('the song'). Option D uses 'to sing' incorrectly; the idiom already implies singing.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “belt your heart out”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.