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

1. A rising or swell; an exertion or effort upward. None could guess whether the next heave of the earthquake would settle or swallow them. Dryden.
2. A rising swell, or distention, as of the breast. These profound heaves. Shak.
3. An effort to vomit.
4. An effort to rise. Hudibras.

1. To swell, distend or dilate; as, a horse heaves in panting. Hence,
2. To pant; to breathe with labor or pain; as, he heaves for breath. Dryden.
3. To keck; to make an effort to vomit.
4. To rise in billows, as the sea; to swell.
5. To rise; to be lifted; as, a ship heaves.
6. 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.

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. Milton.
2. To cause to swell. The glittering finny swarms That heave our friths and crowd upon our shores. Thomson.
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. Shak.
5. To puff; to elate. Hayward.
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 a ship forward. 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.]

1. To cause to move upward or onward by a lifting effort; to lift; to raise; to hoist; -- often with up; as, the wave heaved the boat on land.
   
   

   One heaved ahigh, to be hurled down below. Shak.

   * Heave, as now used, implies that the thing raised is heavy or hard to move; but formerly it was used in a less restricted sense.

   Here a little child I stand,
   Heaving up my either hand. Herrick.

2. To be thrown up or raised; to rise upward, as a tower or mound.
   
   

   And the huge columns heave into the sky. Pope.

   Where heaves the turf in many a moldering heap. Gray.

   The heaving sods of Bunker Hill. E. Everett.

3. An effort to raise something, as a weight, or one's self, or to move something heavy.
   
   

   After many strains and heaves
   He got up to his saddle eaves. Hudibras.

4. To throw; to cast; -- obsolete, provincial, or colloquial, except in certain nautical phrases; as, to heave the lead; to heave the log.
5. To rise and fall with alternate motions, as the lungs in heavy breathing, as waves in a heavy sea, as ships on the billows, as the earth when broken up by frost, etc.; to swell; to dilate; to expand; to distend; hence, to labor; to struggle.
   
   

   Frequent for breath his panting bosom heaves. Prior.

   The heaving plain of ocean. Byron.

6. An upward motion; a rising; a swell or distention, as of the breast in difficult breathing, of the waves, of the earth in an earthquake, and the like.
   
   

   There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves,
   You must translate. Shak.

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

7. To force from, or into, any position; to cause to move; also, to throw off; -- mostly used in certain nautical phrases; as, to heave the ship ahead.
8. To make an effort to raise, throw, or move anything; to strain to do something difficult.
   
   

   The Church of England had struggled and heaved at a reformation ever since Wyclif's days. Atterbury.

9. A horizontal dislocation in a metallic lode, taking place at an intersection with another lode.
10. To raise or force from the breast; to utter with effort; as, to heave a sigh.
    
    

    The wretched animal heaved forth such groans. Shak.

11. To make an effort to vomit; to retch; to vomit.
    
    

    To heave at. (a) To make an effort at. (b) To attack, to oppose. [Obs.] Fuller. -- To heave in sight (as a ship at sea), to come in sight; to appear. -- To heave up, to vomit. [Low]

12. To cause to swell or rise, as the breast or bosom.
    
    

    The glittering, finny swarms
    That heave our friths, and crowd upon our shores. Thomson.

    To heave a cable short (Naut.), to haul in cable till the ship is almost perpendicularly above the anchor. -- To heave a ship ahead (Naut.), to warp her ahead when not under sail, as by means of cables. -- To heave a ship down (Naut.), to throw or lay her down on one side; to careen her. -- To heave a ship to (Naut.), to bring the ship's head to the wind, and stop her motion. - - To heave about (Naut.), to put about suddenly. -- To heave in (Naut.), to shorten (cable). -- To heave in stays (Naut.), to put a vessel on the other tack. -- To heave out a sail (Naut.), to unfurl it. -- To heave taut (Naut.), to turn a capstan, etc., till the rope becomes strained. See Taut, and Tight. -- To heave the lead (Naut.), to take soundings with lead and line. -- To heave the log. (Naut.) See Log. -- To heave up anchor (Naut.), to raise it from the bottom of the sea or elsewhere.