use-icon

HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY

To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.

Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.

guide to the dictionary

use-icon

THE USAGE PANEL

The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.

The Panelists

open-icon

AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP

The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.

scroll-icon

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG

The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more.

100-words-icon

See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series!

Find out more!

open-icon

INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?

Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com

heave (hēv)
Share:
v. heaved, heav·ing, heaves
v.tr.
1. To raise or lift, especially with great effort or force: heaved the box of books onto the table. See Synonyms at lift.
2.
a. To throw (a heavy object) with great effort; hurl: heave the shot; heaved a brick through the window.
b. To throw or toss: heaved his backpack into the corner.
3. To give out or utter with effort or pain: heaved a sigh; heaved a groan.
4. To vomit (something).
5. past tense and past participle hove (hōv) Nautical
a. To raise or haul up by means of a rope, line, or cable: hove the anchor up and set sail.
b. To move (a ship) in a certain direction or into a certain position by hauling: hove the ship astern.
6. To make rise or swell: the wind heaving huge waves; an exhausted dog heaving its chest.
7. Geology To displace or move (a vein, lode, or stratum, for example).
v.intr.
1. To rise up or swell, as if pushed up; bulge: The sidewalk froze and heaved.
2. To rise and fall in turn, as waves.
3. To gag or vomit.
4. To pant; gasp: heave for air.
5. past tense and past participle hove Nautical
a. To move in a certain direction or to a specified position: The frigate hove alongside.
b. To pull at or haul a rope or cable: The brig is heaving around on the anchor.
c. To push at a capstan bar or lever.
n.
1. The act or effort of raising or lifting something: with a great heave hauled the fish onto the deck.
2. An act of hurling; a throw, especially when considered in terms of distance: a heave of 63 feet.
3. Geology
a. A horizontal dislocation, as of a rock stratum, at a fault.
b. An upward movement of a surface, especially when caused by swelling and expansion of clay, removal of overburden, or freezing of subsurface water.
4. An upward movement, especially of a ship or aircraft.
5. The act or an instance of gagging or vomiting.
6. heaves (used with a sing. or pl. verb) See recurrent airway obstruction.
Phrasal Verb:
heave to Nautical
1. To turn a sailing ship so that its bow heads into the wind and the ship lies motionless except for drifting, as to meet a storm: The brig hove to.
2. To turn an engine-powered vessel in a similar situation so that its bow heads into the seas while proceeding at low speed.
Idiom:
heave into sight/view
To rise or seem to rise over the horizon into view, as a ship.

[Middle English heven, from Old English hebban; see kap- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

heaver n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.