Definition of "bleeding heart" []

• Any of various perennial herbs of the genus Dicentra, especially the Old World D. spectabilis, having arching clusters of pink to red or sometimes white, heart-shaped flowers. (noun)
• A person who is considered excessively sympathetic toward those who claim to be underprivileged or exploited. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Gabrielle Ashe was black, but her tawny coloring was more of a deep cinnamon or mahogany, the kind of comfortable in-between that Sexton knew bleeding heart "whites" could endorse without feeling like they were giving away the farm."
• "Somehow this would make a great show ... two of the city’s leading citizens missing, one a wealthy do-anything-for-a-buck industrialist, the other a bleeding heart who helped the downtrodden ... yeah, oh, man, yeah."