heave

English

Etymology

Middle English heven, hebben, from Old English hebban, from Proto-Germanic *habjanan (“to take up, lift”) (compare West Frisian heffe, Dutch heffen, German heben, Danish hæve), from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (compare Old Irish cáin 'law, tribute', cacht 'prisoner', Latin capiō 'to take', Latvian kàmpt 'to seize', Albanian kap (“I grasp, seize”), Ancient Greek κάπτω (káptō, “to gulp down”), κώπη (kṓpē, “handle”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /hiːv/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːv

Verb

heave (third-person singular simple present heaves, present participle heaving, simple past heaved or, nautical, hove, past participle heaved or, nautical hove/ hoven)

1. (transitive, archaic) To lift (generally); to raise, or cause to move upwards (particularly in ships or vehicles) or forwards.
2. (transitive) To lift with difficulty; to raise with some effort; to lift (a heavy thing).

   We heaved the chest-of-doors on to the second-floor landing.

3. (transitive, mining, geology) To displace (a vein, stratum).
4. (transitive, now rare) To cause to swell or rise, especially in repeated exertions.

   The wind heaved the waves.

5. (intransitive) To rise and fall.

   Her chest heaved with emotion.

6. (transitive) To utter with effort.

   She heaved a sigh and stared out of the window.

7. (transitive, now nautical) To throw, cast.

   The cap'n hove the body overboard.

8. (transitive, nautical) To pull up with a rope or cable.

   Heave up the anchor there, boys!

9. (intransitive, nautical) To move in a certain direction or into a certain position or situation.

   The ship hove in sight.

10. (intransitive) To make an effort to vomit; to retch.

    The smell of the old cheese was enough to make you heave.

Noun

heave (plural heaves)

1. An effort to raise something, as a weight, or one's self, or to move something heavy.
   • 1749, John Cleland, Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure Part 2

     and now the bed shook, the curtains rattled so, that I could scarce hear the sighs and murmurs, the heaves and pantings that accompanied the action, from the beginning to the end

2. An upward motion; a rising; a swell or distention, as of the breast in difficult breathing, of the waves, of the earth in an earthquake, and the like.
3. A horizontal dislocation in a metallic lode, taking place at an intersection with another lode.
4. (nautical) The measure of extent to which a nautical vessel goes up and down in a short period of time. Compare with pitch.

Translations

An effort to raise something, as a weight, or one's self, or to move something heavy

Italian: sollevamento (it) m. Russian: поднятие (ru) (podnjátije) n., поднимание (ru) (podnimánije) n.