Dictionary entry

Heave (2)

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Heave (hēv), v. i. 1. To be thrown up or raised; to rise upward, as a tower or mound.

And the huge columns heave into the sky. Pope.

Where heaves the turf in many a moldering heap. Gray.

The heaving sods of Bunker Hill. E. Everett.

2. To rise and fall with alternate motions, as the lungs in heavy breathing, as waves in a heavy sea, as ships on the billows, as the earth when broken up by frost, etc.; to swell; to dilate; to expand; to distend; hence, to labor; to struggle.

Frequent for breath his panting bosom heaves. Prior.

The heaving plain of ocean. Byron.

3. 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. Atterbury.

4. To make an effort to vomit; to retch; to vomit.

To heave at. (a) To make an effort at. (b) To attack, to oppose. Fuller.To heave in sight (as a ship at sea), to come in sight; to appear. — To heave up, to vomit.