# What does ‘wear your heart on your sleeve’ mean?

To “wear your heart on your sleeve” means to show your feelings openly. Brewer's traces this to a passage in Shakespeare's Othello (I.i): 'I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at.'

## What it means

- Brewer's traces this to a passage in Shakespeare's Othello (I.i): 'I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at.'

## Action steps

1. Used both admiringly and warningly.
2. Example: He wears his heart on his sleeve, so everyone knew he was hurt.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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