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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

heave.

To lift with difficulty; to raise with some effort; to lift (a heavy thing).

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈhiːv/[ˈhɪi̯v]
  1. To lift with difficulty; to raise with some effort; to lift (a heavy thing).

    transitive
    We heaved the chest-of-drawers up to the second-floor landing.
    He hove himself out of the bed.
  2. To throw, cast.

    transitive
    They hove rocks into the pond.
    The cap'n hove the body overboard.
  3. To rise and fall.

    intransitive
    Her chest heaved with emotion.
  4. To utter with effort.

    transitive
    She heaved a sigh and stared out of the window.
  5. To pull up with a rope or cable.

    transitive
    Heave up the anchor there, boys!
  6. To lift (generally); to raise, or cause to move upwards (particularly in ships or vehicles) or forwards.

    archaic · transitive
  7. To be thrown up or raised; to rise upward, as a tower or mound.

    intransitive
  8. To displace (a vein, stratum).

    transitive
  9. To cause to swell or rise, especially in repeated exertions.

    archaic · transitive
    The wind heaved the waves.
  10. To move in a certain direction or into a certain position or situation.

    ambitransitive
    to heave the ship ahead
  11. To retch, to make an effort to vomit; to vomit.

    intransitive
    The smell of the old cheese was enough to make you heave.
  12. To make an effort to raise, throw, or move anything; to strain to do something difficult.

    intransitive
  13. To rob; to steal from; to plunder.

    UK · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English heven, hebben, from Old English hebban, from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to take up, lift”), from Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti, from the root *kap-. See also have. Cognates Cognate with West Frisian heffe, Dutch heffen ("to raise", "to lift"), German heben ("to raise", "to lift"), Danish hæve ("to raise", "to lift"), Albanian kap (“to grasp, seize”), Old Irish cáin (“law, tribute”), cacht (“prisoner”), Latin capiō (“to take”), Latvian kàmpt (“to seize”), Ancient Greek κάπτω (káptō, “to gulp down”), κώπη (kṓpē, “handle”)). (To lift, to raise): Compare typologically Russian поднима́ть (podnimátʹ), подня́ть (podnjátʹ) (akin to има́ть (imátʹ), име́ть (imétʹ) < Proto-Slavic *jьmati, *jьměti).

noun/ˈhiːv/[ˈhɪi̯v]
  1. An effort to raise something, such as a weight or one's own body, or to move something heavy.

    countable
    We gave one more heave and the wall toppled over at last.
  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, etc.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A horizontal dislocation in a metallic lode, taking place at an intersection with another lode.

    countable · uncountable
  4. The measure of extent to which a nautical vessel goes up and down in a short period of time.

    countable · uncountable
  5. An effort to vomit; retching.

    countable · uncountable
  6. Broken wind in horses.

    attributive · countable · rare · uncountable
  7. A forceful shot in which the ball follows a high trajectory

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English heven, hebben, from Old English hebban, from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to take up, lift”), from Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti, from the root *kap-. See also have. Cognates Cognate with West Frisian heffe, Dutch heffen ("to raise", "to lift"), German heben ("to raise", "to lift"), Danish hæve ("to raise", "to lift"), Albanian kap (“to grasp, seize”), Old Irish cáin (“law, tribute”), cacht (“prisoner”), Latin capiō (“to take”), Latvian kàmpt (“to seize”), Ancient Greek κάπτω (káptō, “to gulp down”), κώπη (kṓpē, “handle”)). (To lift, to raise): Compare typologically Russian поднима́ть (podnimátʹ), подня́ть (podnjátʹ) (akin to има́ть (imátʹ), име́ть (imétʹ) < Proto-Slavic *jьmati, *jьměti).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.