heft

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Archived revision by Rukhabot (talk | contribs) as of 15:52, 30 October 2019.
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also: Heft and Hëft

English

Pronunciation

  • Audio (US):(file)
  • IPA(key): /hɛft/
  • Rhymes: -ɛft

Etymology 1

From Old Norse hefð.

Alternative forms

Noun

heft (countable and uncountable, plural hefts)

  1. (uncountable) Weight.
    • T. Hughes
      a man of his age and heft
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.
  2. Heaviness, the feel of weight.
    A high quality hammer should have good balance and heft.
    • 2014 September 7, Natalie Angier, “The Moon comes around again [print version: Revisiting a moon that still has secrets to reveal: Supermoon revives interest in its violent origins and hidden face, International New York Times, 10 September 2014, p. 8]”, in The New York Times‎[1]:
      Unlike most moons of the solar system, ours has the heft, the gravitational gravitas, to pull itself into a sphere.
  3. (Northern England) A piece of mountain pasture to which a farm animal has become hefted (accustomed).
  4. An animal that has become hefted thus.
  5. (West of Ireland) Poor condition in sheep caused by mineral deficiency.
  6. The act or effort of heaving; violent strain or exertion.
  7. (US, dated, colloquial) The greater part or bulk of anything.
    • (Can we find and add a quotation of J. Pickering to this entry?)
    The heft of the crop was spoiled.
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

heft (third-person singular simple present hefts, present participle hefting, simple past and past participle hefted)

  1. (transitive) To lift up; especially, to lift something heavy.
    He hefted the sack of concrete into the truck.
  2. (transitive) To test the weight of something by lifting it.
  3. (transitive, Northern England and Scotland) To make (a farm animal, especially a flock of sheep) accustomed and attached to an area of mountain pasture.
  4. (obsolete) past participle of heave
Synonyms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Etymology 2

From German Heft (“notebook”).

Noun

heft (plural hefts)

  1. A number of sheets of paper fastened together, as for a notebook.
  2. A part of a serial publication.
    • The Nation
      The size of hefts will depend on the material requiring attention, and the annual volume is to cost about 15 marks.

Dutch

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch hefte. Forms with -cht- were dominant in Middle Dutch. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

heft n (plural heften, diminutive heftje n)

  1. handle of a knife or other tool, haft, hilt
  2. (metaphor, used absolutely: het heft) control, charge
    Zij heeft hier het heft in handen. ― She runs the show here.
    Synonyms: gevest, handgreep
Alternative forms
Derived terms

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

heft

  1. (deprecated template usage) second- and third-person singular present indicative of heffen
  2. (deprecated template usage) (archaic) plural imperative of heffen

Kurdish

Etymology

From Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "ku" is not valid. See WT:LOL., from Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "ku" is not valid. See WT:LOL., from Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "ku" is not valid. See WT:LOL.. Compare Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬞𐬙𐬀 (hapta), Persian هفت (haft), Ossetian авд (avd), Pashto اووه (uwə).

Numeral

Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "ku" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.

  1. Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "ku" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. seven

Scots

Etymology

From Old Norse hefð.

Noun

heft

  1. A piece of mountain pasture to which a farm animal has become hefted.
  2. An animal that has become hefted thus.

Verb

heft (third-person singular simple present hefts, present participle heftin, simple past heftit, past participle heftit)

  1. (transitive) The process by which a farm animal becomes accustomed to an area of mountain pasture.
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=heft&oldid=57912031"