heartthrob

English

Alternative forms

• heart throb (obsolete)
• heart-throb

Etymology

From heart +‎ throb.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

heartthrob (plural heartthrobs)

1. A heartbeat.
2. The object of one’s desires or infatuation; a sweetheart.
3. (of a man) A usually handsome, attractive celebrity.
   • 2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[1]:

     And really, Michael Jackson is a more fitting aspiration for the similarly sexless would-be-former teen heartthrob, who’s compared himself to the late King Of Pop (perhaps a bit prematurely) on several occasions and sings in a Jackson-like croon over a sample of “We’ve Got A Good Thing Going” on Believe’s “Die In Your Arms.”

Translations

heartbeat

• Dutch: hartslag (nl)
• Finnish: sydämentykytys
• German: Herzschlag (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: bicie serca n
• Portuguese: batimento cardíaco
• Russian: сердцебие́ние (ru) n (serdcebijénije)

sweetheart

• Maori: kaitokomauri, kuku o te manawa
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}