break someone's heart

To cause one to feel great sadness. This phrase is often said about the end of a romantic relationship. I know Adam broke your heart, but there are lots of guys out there who would treat you well. That poor, skittish cat just breaks my heart—I can't believe someone abandoned her!

Cause severe emotional pain or grief. For example, If the verdict is guilty, it will break her mother's heart. This hyperbole has appeared in works by Chaucer, Shakespeare, and George Bernard Shaw, among others. In noun form it appears as both a broken heart and heartbreak (Shaw wrote a play entitled Heartbreak House, 1913). Today it also is used ironically, as in You only scored an A-minus on the final? That breaks my heart! [Late 1300s]

To make someone very unhappy, to cause great grief. The expression goes back at least to Chaucer’s time, and is echoed by poets in just about every era. “But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue,” says Hamlet (1.2). Today the cliché is sometimes spoken ironically: “You break my heart,” meaning “I really don’t feel sorry for you.”