Heaving
adj, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 An occasion on which something heaves or is heaved.
"No swellings tell that winds may be Upon some far-off happier sea-- No heavings hint that winds have been On seas less hideously serene.""
- 2 throwing something heavy (with great effort) wordnet
- 3 the act of lifting something with great effort wordnet
- 4 breathing heavily (as after exertion) wordnet
- 5 an upward movement (especially a rhythmical rising and falling) wordnet
- 1 present participle and gerund of heave form-of, gerund, participle, present
- 1 Crowded with people. informal
"2006, Tim Downie, "Ride Report: Bealach-na-Ba", uk.rec.cycling http://groups.google.com/group/uk.rec.cycling/browse_thread/thread/af08b5a62b82262c/192dcd8f8dca7b8e?lnk=st&q=%22was+heaving%22&rnum=7#192dcd8f8dca7b8e Kinlochewe was heaving with cyclists and their vehicles on Saturday morning but somehow, the organisers had found space for everyone and the main roads were kept clear."
Example
More examples"Heaving a great sigh I plunk my bread on the table and flump onto the chair."
Related phrases
More for "heaving"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.