Meaning & use
heart in throat
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Meanings
phrasefixed phraseinformal
A state of feeling very nervous, frightened, or excited, as if your heart has risen into your neck.
Grammar: Used mainly after 'with' or in the pattern 'have your heart in your throat'; it describes a person's feeling, so it needs a possessive word like my, your, his or her.
Patterns
- have your heart in your throat
- with your heart in your throat
- your heart was in your throat
I had my heart in my throat the whole time she was on stage.
He waited for the exam results with his heart in his throat.
My heart was in my throat as the plane took off in the storm.
phrasefixed phraseinformal
Used to say that someone is extremely anxious about what may happen next.
Grammar: Often appears in past or continuous tenses to describe a moment of suspense, as in 'my heart was in my throat'.
Patterns
- your heart is in your throat
- your heart was in your throat
Her heart was in her throat while the doctor read the test results.
We watched the final minutes of the match with our hearts in our throats.
Common combinations
- have your heart in your throat
- I had my heart in my throat when the phone rang late at night.
- with your heart in your throat
- She opened the letter with her heart in her throat.
- your heart was in your throat
- My heart was in my throat as I walked into the interview.
- leave someone with their heart in their throat
- The ending of the film left the audience with their hearts in their throats.
Synonyms and how they differ
- terrified
- This describes the strong fear itself, while 'heart in throat' pictures the physical feeling of fear and excitement.
- anxious
- 'Anxious' is a general word for worry and can last a long time; the idiom suggests a sudden, intense moment.
- on edge
- 'On edge' means nervous and easily upset over a period, but it does not have the same image of a pounding heart.
Opposites
Commonly confused: heart in throat or heart in your mouth?
heart in throat vs heart in your mouth
This is the usual British version of the same idea; American speakers more often say 'heart in your throat'.
Practice
Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Choose one answer.
The idiom needs a possessive word such as 'her' before 'heart' and 'throat': 'her heart in her throat'. Option 2 uses 'a heart', which breaks the fixed pattern, and options 3 and 4 are missing the possessive determiners.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “heart in throat”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.