heave: Meaning and Definition of

heave

Pronunciation: (hēv), [key]
— v., n. heaved hove heav&syling
—v.t.
  1. to raise or lift with effort or force; hoist: to heave a heavy ax.
  2. to throw, esp. to lift and throw with effort, force, or violence: to heave an anchor overboard; to heave a stone through a window.
  3. to heave a vessel aback.
    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!
  4. to utter laboriously or painfully: to heave a sigh.
  5. to cause to rise and fall with or as with a swelling motion: to heave one's chest.
  6. to vomit; throw up: He heaved his breakfast before noon.
  7. to haul or pull on (a rope, cable, line, etc.), as with the hands or a capstan: Heave the anchor cable!
—v.i.
  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 effort.
  3. to vomit; retch.
  4. to rise as if thrust up, as a hill; swell or bulge: The ground heaved and small fissures appeared for miles around.
  5. to pull or haul on a rope, cable, etc.
  6. to push, as on a capstan bar.
  7. heave about; heave alongside; heave in stays.
    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, as with a heavy beam sea.
  8. to careen (a vessel).
  9. (an exclamation used by sailors, as when heaving the anchor up.)
  10. to rise to view, as from below the horizon: The ship hove in sight as dawn began to break.
    1. to shake loose (a reef taken in a sail).
    2. to loosen (a sail) from its gaskets in order to set it.
  11. See (def. 12).
    1. Naut.to stop the headway of (a vessel), esp. by bringing the head to the wind and trimming the sails so that they act against one another.
    2. to come to a halt.
—n.
  1. an act or effort of heaving.
  2. a throw, toss, or cast.
  3. the horizontal component of the apparent displacement resulting from a fault, measured in a vertical plane perpendicular to the strike.
  4. the rise and fall of the waves or swell of a sea.
  5. Also calleda disease of horses, similar to asthma in human beings, characterized by difficult breathing.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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