Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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noun
The feel of the weight of something; heaviness.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Synonyms: heftiness
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The force exerted by an object due to gravitation; weight.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, countable, dialectal, uncountable
Qualifier: dated except UK
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Graveness, seriousness; gravity.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, figuratively, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Importance, influence; weight.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, figuratively, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The greater part of something; the bulk, the mass.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, countable, dated, informal, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
An act of lifting; a lift.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, countable, dialectal, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
An act of heaving (lifting with difficulty); an instance of violent exertion or straining.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, obsolete, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A piece of pastureland which farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) have become accustomed to.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal
Topics: agriculture, business, lifestyle
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A flock or group of farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) which have become accustomed to a particular piece of pastureland.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal
Topics: agriculture, business, lifestyle
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A number of sheets of paper fastened together, as to form a book or a notebook.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal
Topics: agriculture, business, lifestyle
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A part of a serial publication; a fascicle, an issue, a number.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal
Topics: agriculture, business, lifestyle
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To lift or lift up (something, especially a heavy object).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, US, dialectal, informal, transitive
Synonyms: hoist
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To test the weight of (something) by lifting.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, US, dialectal, informal, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To test the weight of (something) by lifting.
To evaluate or test (someone or something).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, US, dialectal, figuratively, informal, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To have (substantial) weight; to weigh.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, US, dialectal, informal, intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
simple past and past participle of heave
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, US, dialectal, form-of, informal, obsolete, participle, past
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To accustom (a flock or group of farm animals, chiefly cattle or sheep) to a piece of pastureland.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal, transitive
Topics: agriculture, business, lifestyle
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To establish or settle (someone) in an occupation or place of residence.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, figuratively, informal, transitive
Topics: agriculture, business, lifestyle
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To establish or plant (something) firmly in a place; to fix, to root, to settle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, figuratively, informal, transitive
Topics: agriculture, business, lifestyle
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Of a thing: to establish or settle itself in a place.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal, intransitive, reflexive
Topics: agriculture, business, lifestyle
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To cause (milk) to be held in a cow's udder until the latter becomes hard and swollen, either by not milking the cow or by stopping up the teats, to make the cow look healthy; also, to cause (a cow) to have an udder in this condition.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal
Topics: agriculture, business, lifestyle
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To cause (urine) to be held in a person's bladder.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, broadly, dialectal, informal
Topics: agriculture, business, lifestyle
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
the property of being large in mass
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: heftiness, massiveness, ponderousness, ponderosity
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: heaviness, weightiness
verb
lift or elevate
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: heave, heave up, heft up
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: lift
Narrower terms: upheave, weigh anchor, weigh the anchor
verb
test the weight of something by lifting it
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: weigh, librate
History
The noun is derived from Late Middle English heft (“heaviness; something heavy, a weight”), from heven (“to lift, raise”) + -th (suffix denoting a condition, quality, state of being, etc., forming nouns), by analogy with the development of weft from weven (modern English weave), etc. (also compare words like cleft from cleave, and theft from thieve, where the development occurred in Old English or earlier languages). The English word is analysable as heave + -t (suffix forming nouns from verbs). The verb is probably derived from the noun.
The noun is borrowed from Scots heft, haft (“pasture which sheep are familiar with; attachment of sheep to a pasture; number of sheep grazing on such a pasture; (obsolete) place of residence; situation”), probably from Old Norse hefð (“occupation; possession; prescriptive right”), from hafa (“to have; to keep, retain”), from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to have; to hold”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-, *keh2p- (“to hold; to seize”). The verb is borrowed from Scots heft (“to cause (cattle or sheep) to become familiar with a pasture; of animals: to become familiar with a pasture; (figurative) of a person: to become settled in an occupation or place”), probably from Old Norse hefða (“to acquire prescriptive rights”), from hefð (noun): see above. Both the noun and verb may have been influenced by Scots heft (“(noun) handle of an implement, haft; (verb) to fit (an implement) with a handle”).
Borrowed from German Heft (“issue of a serial publication, number; magazine; notebook; notepad”), a back-formation from heften (“to fasten”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haftijaną (“to bind; to secure”): see further at etymology 4.
From heave + -t (suffix forming the past and/or past participle forms of verbs).
Borrowed from Scots heft, from Old Norse hepta (“to bind; to hinder, impede; to hold back, restrain”), from Proto-Germanic *haftijaną (“to bind; to secure”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to hold, seize”).
Across languages
48 source translations are retained for this English entry.
