heave

American  

[heev] / hiv /

verb (used with object)

• heaves,
  present (3rd person singular)
• heaved,
  past participle,  past
• hove,
  past participle,  past
• heaving
  present participle

1. to throw, especially to lift and throw with effort, force, or violence.

   The sailors began heaving the cargo overboard.

   I saw someone heave a brick through the window.

   Synonyms:

   sling, cast, fling, pitch, hurl

2. to raise or lift with effort or force; hoist.

   He tried to heave the sledgehammer, but he wasn’t strong enough.

   Synonyms:

   elevate

3. to utter laboriously or painfully.

   He heaved a sigh.

4. to cause to rise and fall with or as if with a swelling motion.

   She stood there weeping, sobs heaving her chest as she covered her face.

5. to vomit; throw up.

   He heaved his breakfast before noon.

6. Nautical.

   1. to move into a certain position or situation.

      to heave a vessel aback.

   2. to move in a certain direction.

      Heave the capstan around! Heave up the anchor!

7. to haul or pull on (a rope, cable, line, etc.) with the hands, a winch, a capstan, or the like.

   Heave the anchor cable!

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verb (used without object)

• heaves,
  present (3rd person singular)
• heaved,
  past participle,  past
• hove,
  past participle,  past
• heaving
  present participle

1. to rise and fall in rhythmically alternate movements.

   The ship heaved and rolled in the swelling sea.

2. to breathe with effort; pant.

   He sat there heaving and puffing from the exertion.

3. to vomit or retch.

   The smell of the nearby meat processing plant made me heave.

4. (of the ground, pavement, etc.) to rise as if thrust up; swell or bulge.

   The ground heaved and small fissures appeared for miles around.

   Repeated freezing and thawing will cause the pavement to heave.

   Synonyms:

   billow, surge

5. to pull or haul on a rope, cable, etc..

   We heaved on the rope with all our might, but the log did not budge.

6. to push, as on a capstan bar.

7. Nautical.

   1. to move in a certain direction or into a certain position or situation.

      heave about;

      heave alongside;

      heave in stays.

   2. (of a vessel) to rise and fall on high waves, especially waves passing at right angles to the ship.

noun

• heaves
  plural

1. an act or effort of lifting, pulling, or pushing.

   With one mighty heave they managed to haul the unconscious man into the boat.

2. a throw, toss, or cast.

   With a great heave, she threw the stone out of the garden bed.

3. Informal. the act of rejecting or expelling, or the attempt to do so.

   The politician narrowly survived a heave by his own party.

4. an effortful act of vomiting, retching, coughing, or sighing.

   With a heave he coughed up the river water in his lungs.

   She turned away and bent over as a heave overcame her.

5. Geology. the horizontal component of the apparent displacement resulting from a fault, measured in a vertical plane perpendicular to the strike.

6. the rise and fall of the waves or swell of a sea.

   The ship’s motion is so stable, one doesn’t feel the heave of the ocean.

7. Also called broken wind. (used with a singular verb) heaves, a disease of horses, similar to asthma in human beings, characterized by difficult breathing.

verb phrase

1. heave to

   1. Nautical. to stop the headway of (a vessel), especially by bringing the head to the wind and trimming the sails so that they act against one another.

   2. to come to a halt.

2. heave down to careen (a vessel).

3. heave out

   1. to shake loose (a reef taken in a sail).

   2. to loosen (a sail) from its gaskets in order to set it.

idioms

1. heave ho, (an exclamation used by sailors, such as when heaving the anchor up.)

2. heave the lead. lead.

3. heave in sight, to rise to view, such as from below the horizon.

   The ship hove in sight as dawn began to break.

heave British  

/ hiːv /

verb

1. (tr) to lift or move with a great effort

2. (tr) to throw (something heavy) with effort

3. to utter (sounds, sighs, etc) or breathe noisily or unhappily

   to heave a sigh

4. to rise and fall or cause to rise and fall heavily

5. (past tense and past participle hove) nautical

   1. to move or cause to move in a specified way, direction, or position

      to heave in sight

   2. (intr) (of a vessel) to pitch or roll

6. (tr) to displace (rock strata, mineral veins, etc) in a horizontal direction

7. (intr) to retch

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noun

1. the act or an instance of heaving

2. a fling

3. the horizontal displacement of rock strata at a fault

Synonym Usage

See raise.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• heaver
  noun
• heaveless
  adjective
• unheaved
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• heaves
  plural

Participles

• heaving
  present
• heaved
  past
• hove
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• heave
  simple
• heaves
  simple
• have heaved
  perfect
• have hove
  perfect
• has heaved
  perfect
• has hove
  perfect
• am heaving
  progressive
• are heaving
  progressive
• is heaving
  progressive
• have been heaving
  perfect progressive
• has been heaving
  perfect progressive

Past

• heaved
  simple
• hove
  simple
• had heaved
  perfect
• had hove
  perfect
• was heaving
  progressive
• were heaving
  progressive
• had been heaving
  perfect progressive

Future

• will heave
  simple
• will have heaved
  perfect
• will have hove
  perfect
• will be heaving
  progressive
• will have been heaving
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of heave

First recorded before 900; Middle English heven, variant (with -v- from simple past tense and past participle) of hebben, Old English hebban; cognate with German heben, Old Norse hefja, Gothic hafjan; akin to Latin capere “to take”

Explanation

When you heave something, you haul or lift a heavy object. You might not realize how fat your cat has become until you have to heave him out of the way to make room for yourself on the sofa. You heave a heavy object when you lift it, like when you heave piles of wet snow out of your driveway with a shovel, and you can heave yourself out of bed in the morning, if it takes a huge effort to get yourself into a vertical position. You can even heave a heavy sigh, which simply means you sigh loudly. To vomit is also sometimes described as heaving, describing the unpleasant effort of your stomach muscles.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

heave heaves heaved hove heaving

Landing Skubal in exchange for a trio of promising prospects isn’t a Hail Mary heave.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

At one point, Nelson appears to snatch the other driver’s sunglasses from his forehead and heave them across the parking lot.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026

But with a final heave of the digger bucket, a shower of gold was released from the soil.

From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2026

It is this that has led Sir Keir and the Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, to give Sir Olly Robbins the heave ho.

From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2026

I heave my book bag over my shoulder and walk on.

From "Al Capone Does My Shirts" by Gennifer Choldenko

He guides me inside a warehouse full of vast, bubbling water tanks and heaves out a haul of the squirming, long, thin black fish.

From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2026

With each of their heaves, the rope squeaked and the branch above bounced precariously.

From National Geographic ● Jan. 23, 2024

Every few minutes, as if on command, it felt like the entire gym quieted in between their heaves just to watch a master at work.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2023

The map, the early morning, the letter that has traveled through the night to be delivered: A narrative heaves underneath the silence of the scene.

From New York Times ● May 25, 2023

The audience heaves a single sigh of relief, even though I am completing my dance long after the music has stopped.

From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson

However, the game swung again in the over after Kelly reached his hundred as the left-hander heaved Tom Helm to Higgins on the mid-wicket fence to leave Leicestershire eight down.

From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026

Faced with an early fourth down, he heaved a pass deep down the sideline for Dixon-Wyatt, who leaped over a defender to reel in a 31-yard reception.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026

Von Allmen, however, was a picture of celebration after his storming run, the large number of baying Swiss fans in the packed tribune wildly applauding their hero, flags waved, cowbells heaved and air horns blown.

From Barron's ● Feb. 11, 2026

Every Navy officer I knew heaved a huge sigh of relief.

From Slate ● Dec. 23, 2025

She heaved herself onto the muddy grass slope and set her forehead against the wet ground.

From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack

Racism has been a feature of American history since the first slave ship hove to off Jamestown in 1619.

From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2025

“Make yourself at home,” the midwife said, as I hove into the birthing room like a galleon in full sail.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 13, 2019

“The jury is still out,” said Luc Van den hove, chief executive of the Belgium-based chip research center Imec.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2016

The dark mouths of mines now hove into view, in all sizes and states of dilapidation.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 13, 2015

He gave no sign even when the first ranks of his own squadron hove into sight with their swingless marching and die first stricken gasps of alarm were hissing from his startled fellow officers.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

The place was heaving with devotees, hands clasped at their chests and lips moving.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026

International rescue teams and frantic families are in a race against time, heaving debris aside in a desperate bid to find the last survivors.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

The gym, meanwhile, is "absolutely heaving with young people" at times, says Lauren Connis, head of health and wellbeing at Oldham Active in Manchester.

From BBC ● Mar. 21, 2026

A heaving Murrayfield, the Scots with their backs to the wall, England on a mighty roll, a shot at redemption.

From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2026

Chest heaving, I lay on my back looking up at the vaulted ceiling of the gym.

From "Courage to Soar" by Simone Biles

Related Words

• breathe
• exhale
• groan
• huff
• puff
• spew
• vomit