hearten
/ˈhɑːtn/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈhɑːrtn/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈhär-tᵊn/ (ame, mw)
hearten — verb
- heartenpresent simple I / you / we / they
- heartenshe / she / it
- heartenedpast simple
- heartening-ing form
1. to make someone feel more hopeful and confident when they were worried or unsure
to make someone feel more hopeful and confident when they were worried or unsure about something
The team was heartened by the loud support from the fans during the final match.
passive: be heartened by + noun (source of encouragement)
News of the scholarship heartened Mei-Lin and her family after months of worry.
active: news/or result heartens someone
Javier felt heartened when his manager praised the way he led the project.
The charity workers were heartened to see so many boxes of food arrive at the shelter.
It heartened the villagers to watch the first green shoots push through the dry soil after weeks of rain.
- encourage
more common and broader; can be used with a person as the subject (I encouraged her), while hearten usually needs an event as subject
- cheer
more informal; suggests lifting someone's mood from sadness, not necessarily from worry or doubt
- reassure
focuses on removing doubt or fear rather than adding hope
- discourage
to make someone lose confidence or hope — the direct opposite
- dishearten
slightly more common than hearten; specifically about losing hope in a difficult situation
文法句型
hearten + object
be heartened + by/at/to + noun
be heartened + to-infinitive
用法筆記
Often used in the passive voice (be heartened by/at) to describe a person's emotional response to good news or positive events. The active form typically has an impersonal or abstract subject (news, result, development) rather than a person.