Dictionary

have one's heart in the right place en · VERB

Pronunciation

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Meanings

1. (idiomatic) To have good intentions.
   • My brother doesn't always do the right thing, but he has his heart in the right place.
   • Mr. Cherry has thought proper to place most of his compliments to England in the mouth of an Irishman, a facetious gentleman, full of generosity and blunders, “with a head that may err, but a heart in the right place" 1823, Andrew Cherry, The Travellers:
   • "Why Jack, old fellow, I wronged you!" I exclaimed,—"your heart is in the right place after all." 1895, Marie Corelli, chapter I, in The Sorrows of Satan: or The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, published 1896, →OCLC, page 9:
   • No one amongst them, as far as I know, with his heart in the right place, stood up and asked in council, What is to become of the poor who cannot pay these high rents? 1835, Thomas Chalmers, On the Evils which the Established Church in Edinburgh Has Already Suffered […] :

Forms

Relateds

come from a good place · come from the right place

Translations (6)

fr avoir bon fond (to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned) · hu helyén van a szíve (to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned) · fi sydän on paikallaan (to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned) · fr avoir bon cœur (to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned) · pl mieć dobre intencje (to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned) · ru име́ть до́брые наме́рения (to have good intentions, to be well-intentioned)