heave
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To lift with difficulty.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
heevIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhiv
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To lift with difficulty; to raise with some effort; to lift (a heavy thing).
Rise and move, as in waves or billows
Utter a sound, as with obvious effort
“She heaved a deep sigh when she saw the list of things to do.”
intransitive
To rise and fall.
transitive
To throw, cast.
Make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; strain to vomit
noun
Throwing something heavy (with great effort)
The act of lifting something with great effort
The act of raising something
countable
An effort to raise something, such as a weight or one's own body, or to move something heavy.
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.
An effort to vomit; retching.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To lift with difficulty; to raise with some effort; to lift (a heavy thing).
Used this way, heave is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use heave
- “She heaved a deep sigh when she saw the list of things to do.”verb
- “A bad case of the heaves.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Related to To lift with difficulty.
To a considerable degree.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Lift or elevate.
Upthrust of ground or pavement caused by the freezing of moist soil.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to lift with difficulty
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.