heave
To lift or pull something heavy with a lot of effort, often in one big movement.
To lift, pull, or otherwise move something that is heavy, usually with a lot of physical effort, often in one strong movement.
To throw something hard, often something big or heavy.
To throw or fling something with great force, often something large or heavy.
To move up and down in a slow, strong way, like the sea or the ground.
To move up and down or back and forth in a slow, heavy, or powerful way, especially in large masses such as water, land, or a crowd.
To throw up food or liquid from your stomach, or to try to throw up with strong movements.
To bring food or liquid up from the stomach and out of the mouth, or to make the strong, unpleasant movements of vomiting even if nothing comes out.
To breathe very hard so that your chest or body moves up and down, often because you are tired, crying, or very upset.
Of a person or animal, to breathe in a deep, heavy, or irregular way so that the chest or shoulders move noticeably, often because of strong emotion or physical effort.
One big, strong movement when you lift or pull something heavy.
A single strong movement of lifting or pulling something, usually something heavy and with a lot of effort.
A slow, strong up-and-down movement, like the sea or someone’s chest moving.
A slow, heavy, or powerful up-and-down movement, especially of the sea, land, or a person’s chest or shoulders.
One strong movement of the body when a person is throwing up or trying to throw up.
A single strong movement of the body when someone is vomiting or trying to vomit, often repeated again and again.
- Base: heave
- Plural: heaves
- Base: heave
- 3rd Person Singular: heaves
- Present Participle: heaving
- Past: heaved, hove
- Past Participle: hove
- Irregular past participle: hove Verb
dry heaves
3Repeated retching without vomiting
Strong, repeated movements as if you are going to vomit, but nothing comes out.
- He spent half the night with dry heaves.
- The medicine upset her stomach and gave her dry heaves.
- After a few dry heaves, the feeling of nausea slowly faded.
give someone the heave-ho
4Dismiss or get rid of someone
To remove someone from a job or to end a romantic relationship with them, often suddenly.
- After three months of poor sales, they gave him the heave-ho.
- She finally gave her cheating boyfriend the heave-ho.
- Anyone who breaks the rules will get the heave-ho.
heave into view
5Appear slowly and heavily
To come slowly into sight, especially when something big or heavy can finally be seen.
- A large ferry finally heaved into view through the fog.
- After an hour of waiting, the island heaved into view on the horizon.
- The truck heaved into view at the top of the hill.
heave to
6Stop or slow a sailing vessel
To bring a sailing boat or ship almost to a stop by turning it in a special way against the wind.
- The captain ordered the ship to heave to during the storm.
- We had to heave to and wait for the fog to clear.
- The yacht heaved to about a mile off the coast.
heave up
2Vomit, throw up
To bring food or drink up from your stomach and out of your mouth; to throw up.
- He ran to the bushes and heaved up his lunch.
- I thought I was going to heave up right there on the bus.
- She had food poisoning and spent the night heaving up everything.
heave a sigh
1Let out a loud sigh
To let out a long, loud breath to show a feeling, such as relief, sadness, or tiredness.
- She heaved a sigh before starting her speech.
- She heaved a sigh of relief when she saw her exam result.
- He heaved a sigh when he saw the long queue.
- He just heaved a long sigh and walked away.
- The crowd heaved a collective sigh when the game finally ended.