KJV Dictionary Definition: heave

heave

HEAVE, v.t. heev. pret. heaved, or hove; pp. heaved, hove, formerly hoven. Gr. to breathe.

1. To lift; to raise; to move upward.

So stretch'd out huge in length the arch fiend lay,

Chain'd on the burning lake, nor ever hence

Had ris'n, or heaved his head.

2. To cause to swell.

The glittering finny swarms

That heave our friths and crowd upon our shores.

3. To raise or force from the breast; as, to heave a sigh or groan, which is accompanied with a swelling or expansion of the thorax.

4. To raise; to elevate; with high.

One heaved on high.

5. To puff; to elate.

6. To throw; to cast; to send; as, to heave a stone. This is a common use of the word in popular language, and among seamen; as, to heave the lead.

7. To raise by turning a windlass; with up; as, to heave up the anchor. Hence,

8. To turn a windlass or capstern with bars or levers. Hence the order, to heave away.

To heave ahead, to draw ship forwards.

To heave astern, to cause to recede; to draw back.

To heave down, to throw or lay down on one side; to careen.

To heave out, to throw out. With seamen, to loose or unfurl a sail, particularly the stay-sails.

To heave in stays, in tacking, to bring a ship's head to the wind.

To heave short, to draw so much of a cable into the ship, as that she is almost perpendicularly above the anchor.

To heave a strain, to work at the windlass with unusual exertion.

To heave taught, to turn a capstern, &c. till the rope becomes straight. See Taught and Tight.

To heave to, to bring the ship's head to the wind, and stop her motion.

To heave up, to relinquish; so to throw up; as, to heave up a design. Vulgar.

HEAVE, v.i. heev. To swell, distend or dilate; as, a horse heaves in panting. Hence,

1. To pant; to breathe with labor or pain; as, he heaves for breath.

2. To keck; to make an effort to vomit.

3. To rise in billows, as the sea; to swell.

4. To rise; to be lifted; as, a ship heaves.

5. To rise or swell, as the earth at the breaking up of frost.

To heave in sight, to appear; to make its first appearance; as a ship at sea, or as a distant object approaching or being approached.

We observe that this verb has often the sense of raising or rising in an arch or circular form, as in throwing and in distention, and from this sense is derived its application to the apparent arch over our heads, heaven.

HEAVE, n. heev. A rising or swell; an exertion or effort upward.

None could guess whether the next heave of the earthquake would settle or swallow them.

1. A rising swell, or distention, as of the breast.

These profound heaves.

2. An effort to vomit.

3. An effort to rise.

heaves

HEAVES, n. heevz. A disease of horses, characterized by difficult and laborious respiration.

heaving

HE'AVING, ppr. Lifting; swelling; throwing; panting; making an effort to vomit.

HE'AVING, n. A rising or swell; a panting.

Definitions from Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828.
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