Set down, set down your honorable load, It honor may be shrouded in
a hearse.
Shak.
4. A carriage specially adapted or used for conveying the dead to the
grave.
Hearse, v. t. To inclose in a hearse; to entomb. [Obs.] "Would she were
hearsed at my foot." Shak.
Hearse"cloth` (-klth`; 115), n. A cloth for covering a coffin when on a
bier; a pall. Bp. Sanderson.
Hearse"like` (-lk`), a. Suitable to a funeral.
If you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearselike
airs as carols.
Bacon.
Heart (h‰rt), n. [OE. harte, herte, heorte, AS. heorte; akin to OS.
herta, OFies. hirte, D. hart, OHG. herza, G. herz, Icel. hjarta, Sw.
hjerta, Goth. haÌrt, Lith. szirdis, Russ. serdtse, Ir. cridhe, L. cor,
Gr. kardi`a, kh^r √227. Cf. Accord, Discord, Cordial, 4th Core,
Courage.] 1. (Anat.) A hollow, muscular organ, which, by contracting
rhythmically, keeps up the circulation of the blood.
Why does my blood thus muster to my heart!
Shak.
In adult mammals and birds, the heart is four-chambered, the right
auricle and ventricle being completely separated from the left auricle
and ventricle; and the blood flows from the systemic veins to the right
auricle, thence to the right ventricle, from which it is forced to the
lungs, then returned to the left auricle, thence passes to the left
ventricle, from which it is driven into the systemic arteries. See
Illust. under Aorta. In fishes there are but one auricle and one
ventricle, the blood being pumped from the ventricle through the gills
to the system, and thence returned to the auricle. In most amphibians
and reptiles, the separation of the auricles is partial or complete,
and in reptiles the ventricles also are separated more or less
completely. The so- called lymph hearts, found in many amphibians,
reptiles, and birds, are contractile sacs, which pump the lymph into
the veins.
2. The seat of the affections or sensibilities, collectively or
separately, as love, hate, joy, grief, courage, and the like; rarely,
the seat of the understanding or will; -- usually in a good sense, when
no epithet is expressed; the better or lovelier part of our nature; the
spring of all our actions and purposes; the seat of moral life and
character; the moral affections and character itself; the individual
disposition and character; as, a good, tender, loving, bad, hard, or
selfish heart.
Hearts are dust, hearts' loves remain.
Emerson.
3. The nearest the middle or center; the part most hidden and within;
the inmost or most essential part of any body or system; the source of
life and motion in any organization; the chief or vital portion; the
center of activity, or of energetic or efficient action; as, the heart
of a country, of a tree, etc.
Exploits done in the heart of France.
Shak.
Peace subsisting at the heart Of endless agitation.
Wordsworth.