Meaning & use
pour out your heart
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Meaning
phraseidiom
To tell someone all your feelings and worries, especially when you are sad or upset.
Grammar: The possessive pronoun changes to match the speaker: 'pour out my heart', 'pour out your heart', 'pour out his heart', etc. It is often followed by 'to someone' or 'about something'.
Patterns
- pour out your heart to someone
- pour out your heart about something
- pour your heart out
After the funeral, she poured out her heart to her best friend.
He poured out his heart about losing his job.
Sometimes it helps to pour out your heart in a diary.
Word forms
| third person singular | pours out his/her heart |
|---|---|
| past tense | poured out his/her heart |
| past participle | poured out his/her heart |
| -ing form | pouring out his/her heart |
Common combinations
- pour out your heart to someone
- She poured out her heart to her mother about the divorce.
- pour out your heart about something
- He poured out his heart about how unfair the situation was.
- pour your heart out
- I sat with her and let her pour her heart out.
- pour out your heart in prayer
- Many people pour out their hearts in prayer when they are afraid.
Synonyms and how they differ
- confide
- This means telling someone a secret or private matter, but it does not emphasize the strong emotional release of 'pour out your heart'.
- open up
- This means starting to talk about your feelings; 'pour out your heart' suggests a full, continuous expression of deep emotion.
- unburden yourself
- This is more formal and means relieving yourself of worries by talking, similar but less idiomatic.
Opposites
Word family
- heart-to-heart noun
- A serious, honest conversation about feelings, often the result of pouring out your heart.
Commonly confused: pour out your heart or pour your heart into something?
pour out your heart vs pour your heart into something
This means putting a lot of effort and love into a task, not telling someone your feelings. For example, 'She poured her heart into the painting.'
Practice
Which sentence uses 'pour out your heart' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Option B correctly uses 'pour out your heart' to mean telling someone your deep feelings. Option A confuses it with 'pour your heart into something', which means putting effort into a task. Options C and D are literal uses of 'pour out' and make no sense with 'heart'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pour out your heart”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.