a.
1. Having a light heart; not oppressed by care or sorrow; cheerful, gay.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 2814. I sall leue & be lechid, forþi be liȝt-herted.
1530. Palsgr., 317/1. Lyght herted or mery, alaigre.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. xiii. (1840), 279. I was now light-hearted.
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 12. He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch, Cold and yet cheerful.
1817. Moore, Lalla R. (1824), 215. Light-hearted maid.
1859. W. Collins, Q. of Hearts (1862), 58. Mrs. K. began to make jokes about it, in her lighthearted way.
2. Proceeding from a light heart.
1841. G. P. R. James, Brigand, i. The light-hearted song in the porch.
1891. T. K. Cheyne, Psalter, vi. 290. The light-hearted freedom of antiquity.
Hence Light-heartedly adv., Light-heartedness.
1826. Longf., in Life (1891), I. vii. 89. Filled with all the joy and lightheartedness which a foot-traveller feels, when, leaving his cares behing him, he shoulders his knapsack and wanders away.
1847. De Quincey, Sp. Mil. Nun, Wks. 1862, III. 14. As light-heartedly as the Duke.
1882. M. A. Lewis, in Macm. Mag., XLVI. 207/1. He [Browning] considers light-heartedness, and a turn for making the best of things, as a proof of intellectual strength.
1897. Maude, Voluntary v. Compulsory Service, 131. Those who … would now light-heartedly plunge us into war with the whole of Europe.
