Heaves

//hiːvz// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    plural of heave form-of, plural
  2. 2
    A period of retching. colloquial, plural, plural-only

    "I have the dry heaves, I rather just throw up and get it over with."

  3. 3
    a chronic emphysema of the horse that causes difficult expiration and heaving of the flanks wordnet
  4. 4
    A disease of horses characterized by coughing and difficult breathing; broken wind. plural, plural-only
Verb
  1. 1
    third-person singular simple present indicative of heave form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person

Synonyms

All synonyms
anthraxbarfblacklegbroken winddisgorgementdistemper

Example

More examples

"Then again / a third tall shaft I grasp, with sinewy strain / and firm knees pressed against the sandy ground; / when O! shall tongue make utterance or refrain? / forth from below a dismal, groaning sound / heaves, and a piteous voice is wafted from the mound:"

Related phrases

dry heaves

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.