change of heart

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

change of heart (plural changes of heart)

1. (idiomatic) A change of one's opinion, belief or decision.

   He quit work on Friday, but on Monday he had a change of heart and decided to come back.

   • 1974, “Rikki Don't Lose That Number”, performed by Steely Dan:

     We can go out driving on Slow Hand Row / We could stay inside and play games, I don't know / And you could have a change of heart

   • 2008, Drew Karpyshyn, “Epilogue”, in Mass Effect: Ascension‎^[1], Del Rey Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 341:

     "I thought you were loyal to the cause, Paul."
     “I was,” Grayson answered. “Then I saw the kind of people who share your vision, and I had a change of heart.”

   • 2020 April 8, Howard Johnston, “East-ended? When the ECML was at risk”, in Rail, page 69:

     The Keswick-Carlisle, Bury-Rawtenstall, Watford-Croxley Green and Haltwhistle-Alston services had run out of friends, but the hit-listed Oldham-Rochdale and Inverness-Kyle of Lochalsh lines would benefit from a change of heart.

   • 2022, Harry Hobbs, George Williams, “Motivations” (chapter 3), in Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, page 99:

     Unfortunately, in 1979 Lipburger was convicted of erecting unapproved street signs and jailed for ten weeks. Following a change of heart, the government later invited Lipburger to move his construction to Vienna’s Prater Park, where it still sits today.

• change of mind
• change of tack

• cold feet