1. A framework of wood or metal placed over the coffin or tomb of a deceased person, and covered
with a pall; also, a temporary canopy bearing wax lights and set up in a church, under which the coffin
was placed during the funeral ceremonies. [Obs.] Oxf. Gloss.
2. A grave, coffin, tomb, or sepulchral monument. [Archaic] "Underneath this marble hearse." B. Johnson.
Beside the hearse a fruitful palm tree grows.
Fairfax
Who lies beneath this sculptured hearse.
Longfellow. 3. A bier or handbarrow for conveying the dead to the grave. [Obs.]
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
(Hearse), v. t. To inclose in a hearse; to entomb. [Obs.] "Would she were hearsed at my foot."
Shak.
Hearsecloth
(Hearse"cloth`) n. A cloth for covering a coffin when on a bier; a pall. Bp. Sanderson.
Hearselike
(Hearse"like`) a. Suitable to a funeral.
If you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearselike airs as carols.
Bacon. Heart
(Heart) n. [OE. harte, herte, heorte, AS. heorte; akin to OS. herta, OFies. hirte, D. hart,
OHG. herza, G. herz, Icel. hjarta, Sw. hjerta, Goth. haírto, Lith. szirdis, Russ. serdtse, Ir. cridhe,
L. cor, Gr. kardi`a, kh^r &radic227. 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.
