heft.
The feel of the weight of something; heaviness.
Meaning & usage
The feel of the weight of something; heaviness.
A high quality hammer should have good balance and heft.
The force exerted by an object due to gravitation; weight.
Graveness, seriousness; gravity.
Importance, influence; weight.
The greater part of something; the bulk, the mass.
An act of lifting; a lift.
An act of heaving (lifting with difficulty); an instance of violent exertion or straining.
Where this word comes from
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.
To lift or lift up (something, especially a heavy object).
He hefted the sack of concrete into the truck.
To test the weight of (something) by lifting.
To test the weight of (something) by lifting. To evaluate or test (someone or something).
To have (substantial) weight; to weigh.
Where this word comes from
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.
A piece of pastureland which farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) have become accustomed to.
A flock or group of farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) which have become accustomed to a particular piece of pastureland.
Where this word comes from
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”).
To accustom (a flock or group of farm animals, chiefly cattle or sheep) to a piece of pastureland.
To establish or settle (someone) in an occupation or place of residence.
To establish or plant (something) firmly in a place; to fix, to root, to settle.
Of a thing: to establish or settle itself in a place.
Where this word comes from
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”).
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.
To cause (urine) to be held in a person's bladder.
Where this word comes from
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”).
A number of sheets of paper fastened together, as to form a book or a notebook.
A part of a serial publication; a fascicle, an issue, a number.
Where this word comes from
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.
simple past and past participle of heave
Where this word comes from
From heave + -t (suffix forming the past and/or past participle forms of verbs).
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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.