heft
nounEtymology
The noun is borrowed from Scots heft, haft (“pasture which sheep are familiar with; attachment of sheep to a pasture; number of sheep grazing on such a pasture; (obsolete) place of residence; situation”), probably from Old Norse hefð (“occupation; possession; prescriptive right”), from hafa (“to have; to keep, retain”), from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to have; to hold”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-, *keh₂p- (“to hold; to seize”). The verb is borrowed from Scots heft (“to cause (cattle or sheep) to become familiar with a pasture; of animals: to become familiar with a pasture; (figurative) of a person: to become settled in an occupation or place”), probably from Old Norse hefða (“to acquire prescriptive rights”), from hefð (noun): see above. Both the noun and verb may have been influenced by Scots heft (“(noun) handle of an implement, haft; (verb) to fit (an implement) with a handle”).
Definitions
The feel of the weight of something
The feel of the weight of something; heaviness.
- A high quality hammer should have good balance and heft.
- But Durindan at laſt fell vvith ſuch heft, / Full on the circle of Rogeros ſhield, / That halfe vvay through the Argent byrd it cleft, / And pierſt the core of male [i.e., mail] that vvas vvithin, / And found a paſſage to the verie skin.
- I pictured him doing violence to his better nature, and only wanting a good heft of circumstance to enable him to throw off his load of deviltry.
The force exerted by an object due to gravitation
The force exerted by an object due to gravitation; weight.
- "Look at the heft of 'n [a baby]," said the proud father, "entirely drags ye down, Miss Sybil, 'e do."
Graveness, seriousness
Graveness, seriousness; gravity.
- He's got a good voice, and reads well; but come to a sermon—wal, ain't no gret heft in't.
›+ 18 more definitionsshow fewer
Importance, influence
Importance, influence; weight.
- Put more baldly, the reason why Republicans and British Conservatives started giving each other copies of Atlas Shrugged in the 80s was that [Ayn] Rand seemed to grant intellectual heft to the prevailing ethos of the time.
The greater part of something
The greater part of something; the bulk, the mass.
- The turkey's nest was islanded with a fragrant swath,—the "heft" of the crop noted and rejoiced over,—[…]
- He run to South America or somewheres, taking the heft of the firm's money with him.
An act of lifting
An act of lifting; a lift.
- Deigning no answer, the sturdy parson seized the bigger of the two ash staves, and laying the butt of the other for a fulcrum, gave the stuck wheel such a powerful heft, that the whole cart rattled, and the crates began to dance.
- It was a tremendous heft to raise the boat on to the wall and push it over, but somehow she managed it; […]
An act of heaving (lifting with difficulty)
An act of heaving (lifting with difficulty); an instance of violent exertion or straining.
- [I]f one preſent / Th'abhor'd Ingredient [a spider in a drink] to his eye, make knovvne / Hovv he hath drunke, he cracks his gorge, his ſides / VVith violent Hefts: I haue drunke, and ſeene the Spider.
- The socket of the rim lock tore off to one good heft of the shoulder, and we were in.
To lift or lift up (something, especially a heavy object).
- He hefted the sack of concrete into the truck.
- […] Bevis was to "heft" his gun to the shoulder, and only to press it there sufficiently to feel that the butt touched him.
To test the weight of (something) by lifting.
To have (substantial) weight
To have (substantial) weight; to weigh.
simple past and past participle of heave
A piece of pastureland which farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) have become…
A piece of pastureland which farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) have become accustomed to.
- [S]he came to fetch her [bairn] out of ill haft and waur guiding.
A flock or group of farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) which have become accustomed…
A flock or group of farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) which have become accustomed to a particular piece of pastureland.
To accustom (a flock or group of farm animals, chiefly cattle or sheep) to a piece of…
To accustom (a flock or group of farm animals, chiefly cattle or sheep) to a piece of pastureland.
To establish or settle (someone) in an occupation or place of residence.
- [I]t may be as well that Alan and you do not meet till he is hefted as it were to his new calling.
To establish or plant (something) firmly in a place
To establish or plant (something) firmly in a place; to fix, to root, to settle.
- […] I hae heard him say, that the root of the matter was mair deeply hafted in that wild muirland parish than in the Canogate of Edinburgh.
Of a thing
Of a thing: to establish or settle itself in a place.
To cause (milk) to be held in a cow's udder until the latter becomes hard and swollen,…
To cause (milk) to be held in a cow's udder until the latter becomes hard and swollen, either by not milking the cow or by stopping up the teats, to make the cow look healthy; also, to cause (a cow) to have an udder in this condition.
- The heavy udders of hefted cows trailed on the ground, dripping milk on the greensward. Stray cattle ate the rich grass.
To cause (urine) to be held in a person's bladder.
A number of sheets of paper fastened together, as to form a book or a notebook.
A part of a serial publication
A part of a serial publication; a fascicle, an issue, a number.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for heft. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA