heartbreaking

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   That causes great grief, anguish or distress.

   Near-synonyms: heartrending, heartwrenching

2. 2
   noun

   The breaking of a heart; great grief, anguish or distress.

   One could argue that Eliot's "great heartbreakings" were the overt physical signs of the inner psychological transformations achieved through brainwashing, cultural attack, and epidemic mortality.

3. 3
   adj

   causing or marked by grief or anguish

Etymology

From heart + breaking.