Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To raise or lift, especially with great effort or force: heaved the box of books onto the table. See Synonyms at lift.
- v. To throw (a heavy object) with great effort; hurl: heave the shot; heaved a brick through the window.
- v. To throw or toss: heaved his backpack into the corner.
- v. To utter with effort or pain: heaved a groan of despair.
- v. To vomit (something).
- v. Nautical To raise or haul up by means of a rope, line, or cable: hove the anchor up and set sail.
- v. Nautical To move (a ship) in a certain direction or into a certain position by hauling: hove the ship astern.
- v. To make rise or swell: the wind heaving huge waves; an exhausted dog heaving its chest.
- v. Geology To displace or move (a vein, lode, or stratum, for example).
- v. To rise up or swell, as if pushed up; bulge: The sidewalk froze and heaved.
- v. To rise and fall in turn, as waves.
- v. To gag or vomit.
- v. Nautical To move in a certain direction or to a specified position: The frigate hove alongside.
- v. Nautical To pull at or haul a rope or cable: The brig is heaving around on the anchor.
- v. Nautical To push at a capstan bar or lever.
- n. The effort of heaving.
- n. An act of hurling; a throw, especially when considered in terms of distance: a heave of 63 feet.
- n. Geology A horizontal dislocation, as of a rock stratum, at a fault.
- n. An upward movement.
- n. The act or an instance of gagging or vomiting.
- n. A pulmonary disease of horses that is characterized by respiratory irregularities, such as coughing, and is noticeable especially after exercise or in cold weather.
- heave to Nautical To turn a sailing ship so that its bow heads into the wind and the ship lies motionless except for drifting, in order to meet a storm: The brig hove to.
- heave to Nautical To turn an engine-powered vessel in a similar situation so that its bow heads into the seas while proceeding at low speed.
- idiom. sight To rise or seem to rise over the horizon into view, as a ship.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To raise; lift; hoist.
- Especially To lift with obvious effort; raise with exertion, as something heavy or resistant.
- To lift (a child) at baptism; baptize; also, to be sponsor for.
- To weigh; heft.
- To cause to swell or bulge upward; raise above the former or the surrounding level: often with up.
- To elevate or elate in condition or feeling, as by the operation of some potent agency or some moving influence; exalt; promote; raise suddenly or forcibly to a higher state.
- To increase.
- To bring up or forth with effort; raise from the breast or utter with the voice laboriously or painfully: as, to heave a sigh or a groan.
- To throw upward and outward; cast or toss with force or effort; hurl or pitch, as with aim or purpose: as, to heave a stone; to heave the lead.
- In geology, to throw or lift out of its place: said of the intersection of two veins, or of that of a cross-course with another vein. When a displacement of one or the other is caused by the intersection, one vein is said to heave the other out of its regular position.
- Nautical, to draw or pull in any direction, as by means of a windlass or capstan: as, to heave a ship ahead (that is, to bring her forward, when not under sail, by means of a cable or other appliance); to heave up an anchor (to raise it from the bottom of the sea or elsewhere).
- Synonyms and Hoist, Lift, etc. See raise.
- To be raised, thrown, or forced up; rise; swell up; bulge out.
- To rise and fall with alternate motions, as the waves of the sea, the lungs in difficult or painful breathing, the earth in an earthquake, etc.
- To pant, as after severe exertion; labor.
- To make an effort to vomit; retch.
- To mount.
- To labor heavily; toil.
- n. An act of heaving; a lifting, throwing, tossing, or retching exertion.
- n. An upward movement or expansion; swell or distention, as of the waves of the sea, of the lungs in difficult or painful breathing, of the earth in an earthquake, etc.; a forcible uplifting.
- n. A rise of land; a knoll.
- n. In mining, a dislocation or displacement of a part of a vein, in consequence of its intersection by another vein or cross-course, or by a simple slide, fracture, or jointing of the country-rock. But it occasionally happens that a vein is “hove” when there is no sign of a cross-vein or joint at the place where the continuity of the vein is broken.
- n. plural A disease of horses. See heaves.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive, archaic To lift (generally); to raise, or cause to move upwards (particularly in ships or vehicles) or forwards.
- v. transitive To lift with difficulty; to raise with some effort; to lift (a heavy thing).
- v. transitive, mining, geology To displace (a vein, stratum).
- v. transitive To cause to swell or rise, especially in repeated exertions.
- v. intransitive To rise and fall.
- v. transitive To utter with effort.
- v. transitive To throw, cast.
- v. transitive, nautical To pull up with a rope or cable.
- v. intransitive, nautical To move in a certain direction or into a certain position or situation.
- v. intransitive To make an effort to vomit; to retch.
- v. intransitive To vomit.
- n. An effort to raise something, as a weight, or one's self, or to move something heavy.
- n. 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.
- n. A horizontal dislocation in a metallic lode, taking place at an intersection with another lode.
- n. nautical The measure of extent to which a nautical vessel goes up and down in a short period of time. Compare with pitch.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To cause to move upward or onward by a lifting effort; to lift; to raise; to hoist; -- often with
up . - v. To throw; to cast; -- obsolete, provincial, or colloquial, except in certain nautical phrases
- v. To force from, or into, any position; to cause to move; also, to throw off; -- mostly used in certain nautical phrases.
- v. To raise or force from the breast; to utter with effort.
- v. To cause to swell or rise, as the breast or bosom.
- v. To be thrown up or raised; to rise upward, as a tower or mound.
- v. To rise and fall with alternate motions, as the lungs in heavy breathing, as waves in a heavy sea, as ships on the billows, as the earth when broken up by frost, etc.; to swell; to dilate; to expand; to distend; hence, to labor; to struggle.
- v. To make an effort to raise, throw, or move anything; to strain to do something difficult.
- v. To make an effort to vomit; to retch; to vomit.
- n. An effort to raise something, as a weight, or one's self, or to move something heavy.
- n. 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.
- n. (Geol.) A horizontal dislocation in a metallic lode, taking place at an intersection with another lode.
WordNet 3.0
- v. throw with great effort
- v. rise and move, as in waves or billows
- n. the act of lifting something with great effort
- n. (geology) a horizontal dislocation
- n. the act of raising something
- v. utter a sound, as with obvious effort
- n. an involuntary spasm of ineffectual vomiting
- v. make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; strain to vomit
- v. lift or elevate
- v. move or cause to move in a specified way, direction, or position
- v. breathe noisily, as when one is exhausted
- v. bend out of shape, as under pressure or from heat
- n. an upward movement (especially a rhythmical rising and falling)
- n. throwing something heavy (with great effort)
Etymologies
- 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 *keh₂p- (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")). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English heven, from Old English hebban; see kap- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Refusal to heave is universally considered resistance to capture.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » “Free Gaza” Activists’ Version of the Ship Incident
“Never mind the Republicans rationale for killing both very different but equally evil public options, since they denounce all proposals that don't boost their bottom lines, re-election chances, or the likelihood of a certain black U.S. president getting the ol 'one-term heave ho out of the let's keep-it-that-way White House.”
“Accompanied by a body of picked men from his crew, he ascended to the Loggan Stone, ordered several levers to be placed under it at one point, gave the word to "heave" -- and the next moment had the miserable satisfaction of seeing one of the most remarkable natural curiosities in the world utterly destroyed, for aught he could foresee to the contrary, under his own directions!”
“Heave with me, lads!" cries Harry; and they "heave" -- at his heels -- rushing after, as if to extinguish a fire in the forecastle.”
“Your heave should be a fun, energizing, liberating, and nurturing process.”
“Back to business: Top honors go to Thomas S.G. Lawrence, of Staten Island, N.Y., for his highly original and funny coinage heave-homemaker.”
“By employing what the company refers to as a "heave and surge" energy capture design, the SeaRay is able to reportedly tap the full energy potential from passing waves.”
“heave' - the surfacing lifts, often cracking, as a result of water in the subsoil below freezing and expanding.”
“The sidewalk tradition actually dates back a few thousand years when folks would "heave" their trash and waste from upstairs windows.”
“But even before she got to the word "heave," all nine heavers had dropped the rope and slogged wearily back onto the shore.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘heave’.
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EN - pronunciation fun
All words of the poem
The Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse <...abyss, ache, actual, advice, aerie, age, ague, aisles, alas, alien, alive, allowed and 406 more...
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Vomit
euphemisms for vomiting
hurl, barf, puke, shooting salad, technicolor yawn, praying to the po..., shouting groceries, tossing your cookies, blowing chunks, calling Ralph on ..., speaking in tongu..., howling at the po... and 31 more...
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Scriptie: Master and Commander
Nice ambient words from the movie. (With apologies to Patrick O'Brian.) Aaaah, life at sea...aboard a hulk of the British navy in 1805...
surprise, acheron, guns, souls, oceans, battlefields, prize, burn, sink, privateer, hammock, lantern and 118 more...
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kirstenio's Words
lascivious, transcendant, phantasmagoria, salacious, beatitude, solitude, pseudo, pretentious, inanity, sublimation, clobber, obscurity and 186 more...
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nominative case collection
wine stopper, pyre, roster, hamper, moleskin, elastic, pinnacle, facsimile, nook, plonk, contortionist, dismay and 342 more...
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Words for ice and snow
Environmental Ice and Snow
(excluding all the food ice)ice, icicle, frazil, frasil, sleet, slush, snow, flurry, snowfall, freeze, flash-freeze, quick-freeze and 618 more...
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The Last Werewolf
This novel by Glen Duncan, aside from being a ripping yarn and beautifully written, is just littered with words that I had to look up and discover that often his use of the word not only fitted per...
gurns, bok, chimney breast, dichotomy, Platonic form, filthy, Platonic Form, mathematics, BAM, skirls, clarity, blundering and 298 more...
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Wordwild's Delights
Delightful words to read and use
plangent, ribald, titubant, sidereal, pelagic, improvident, dolorous, parlous, baleful, precatory, pied, mephitic and 247 more...
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Delicious Words
The stuff that fit its descript. so well you can almost taste it on your tongue or feel the sting against your skin.
gurgle, grubby, tangy, bolt, spring, skid, shudder, thud, thump, spit, lush, pop and 91 more...
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Wrapped up in books
I'm reading books. And there are words and phrases I come upon for the first time, or that are used with usages that are new to me.
So, this is just a plain list of those words. Don't expect ...hobble, mackerel, crone, cavort, hoyden, rheumy, scatter, hiss, recoil, trundle, shatter, flaxen and 200 more...
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and Bristol fashion
being items related to boats, ships, sailing, nautical and naval lore &c.
sloop, frigate, brigantine, brig, grog, schooner, rig, sail, canvas, jib, forestay, cutter and 150 more...
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Hitchhiker's GTTG book
heave, consternation, jolt, admonish, menial, dismal, trudge, stale, dank, treacherous, feedline, somersault and 1 more...
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catching words
wicker(whichwill)work
collate, percolate, key, quay, hedge, haggard, haw, hawthorn, hawfinch, colander, couloir, coulee and 54 more...
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The Da Vinci Code
Reading the novel The Da Vinci Code and getting known with some unfamiliar words. That's it.
prelate, prelature, stagger, archway, lunged, gilded, mortification, heave, heap, canvas, anticipated, parquet and 69 more...
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The Flu
influenza, puke bowl, barf, hurl, moan, death wish, ginger ale, popsicle, sputum, gag, kleenex, projectile vomit and 18 more...
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The Art Of Ejection
Vomit words, both method and substance.
vomit, barf, chunder, throw, toss, upchuck, technicolour yawn, speak on the grea..., bark, spew, puke, burp bits and 75 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for heave.

Louises See hauled comments. Mar 25, 2012