at heart

[vil]

Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough to give me your considered opinion concerning the interpretation of the expressions in bold in the following sentences?

I didn’t know him well, but I felt that at heart he as decent, sound and healthy.

With his white head and his loneliness he had remained young and green at heart.

The shop looked like a jeweler’s shop…Only the conventional sigh over a side-entrance showed that at heart of hearts it as a pawnbroker’s. (A. Bennett, “The Old Wives Tales”)

My father was for all his talk at heart a man of silence. (J. Updike, “The Centaur”)

at heart = in heart = in one’s heart = in one’s heart of hearts = fundamentally, basically, deep in oneself

V.

[Rover_KE]

Correct.