• IPA: /hiːv/

heave (heaves, present participle heaving; past heaved, past participle heaved)

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

   We heaved the chest-of-drawers on to the second-floor landing.

2. (transitive) To throw, cast.

   They heaved rocks into the pond.

   The cap'n hove the body overboard.

3. (intransitive) To rise and fall.

   Her chest heaved with emotion.

   • Frequent for breath his panting bosom heaves.

   • the heaving plain of ocean

4. (transitive) To utter with effort.

   She heaved a sigh and stared out of the window.

   • c. 1598–1600, William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene i]:

     The wretched animal heaved forth such groans.

5. (transitive, nautical) To pull up with a rope or cable.

   Heave up the anchor there, boys!

6. (transitive, archaic) To lift (generally); to raise, or cause to move upwards (particularly in ships or vehicles) or forwards.

   • Here a little child I stand, / Heaving up my either hand.

7. (intransitive) To be thrown up or raised; to rise upward, as a tower or mound.
   • 1715, Alexander Pope, The Temple of Fame:

     And the huge columns heave into the sky.

   • where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap

   • the heaving sods of Bunker Hill

8. (transitive, mining, geology) To displace (a vein, stratum).
9. (transitive, now rare) To cause to swell or rise, especially in repeated exertions.

   The wind heaved the waves.

10. (ambitransitive, nautical) To move in a certain direction or into a certain position or situation.

    to heave the ship ahead

11. (intransitive) To retch, to make an effort to vomit; to vomit.

    The smell of the old cheese was enough to make you heave.

12. (intransitive) To make an effort to raise, throw, or move anything; to strain to do something difficult.

    • The Church of England had struggled and heaved at a reformation ever since Wyclif's days.

13. (obsolete, UK, thieves) To rob; to steal from; to plunder.

• heavy
• heft

• German: heben, hieven
• Portuguese: levantar

• German: werfen, wuchten, schleudern

heave (plural heaves)

1. An effort to raise something, such as a weight or one's own body, or to move something heavy.
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.
   • 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: Printed [by Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], OCLC 731622352 ↗:

     and now the bed shook, the curtains rattled so, that I could scarce hear the sighs and murmurs, the heaves and pantings that accompanied the action, from the beginning to the end

3. A horizontal dislocation in a metallic lode, taking place at an intersection with another lode.
4. (nautical) The measure of extent to which a nautical vessel goes up and down in a short period of time. Compare pitch.
5. An effort to vomit; retching.
6. (rare, only used attributively as in "heave line" or "heave horse") Broken wind in horses.

• French: hisser
• Italian: sollevamento
• Russian: подня́тие

• Spanish: ondular