Definition of heave

• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - To throw; to cast; -- obsolete, provincial, or colloquial, except in certain nautical phrases; as, to heave the lead; to heave the log.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - To raise or force from the breast; to utter with effort; as, to heave a sigh.
• v. t. - To cause to swell or rise, as the breast or bosom.
• v. i. - To be thrown up or raised; to rise upward, as a tower or mound.
• v. i. - 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.
• v. i. - To make an effort to raise, throw, or move anything; to strain to do something difficult.
• v. i. - To make an effort to vomit; to retch; to vomit.
• n. - An effort to raise something, as a weight, or one's self, or to move something heavy.
• n. - 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.
• n. - A horizontal dislocation in a metallic lode, taking place at an intersection with another lode.