Heave vs Heft - What's the difference?

In transitive terms the difference between heave and heft

is that heave is to utter with effort while heft is to test the weight of something by lifting it.

As verbs the difference between heave and heft

is that heave is to lift (generally); to raise, or cause to move upwards (particularly in ships or vehicles) or forwards while heft is to lift up; especially, to lift something heavy.

As nouns the difference between heave and heft

is that heave is an effort to raise something, as a weight, or one's self, or to move something heavy while heft is weight.

heave

English

Verb

(archaic) To lift (generally); to raise, or cause to move upwards (particularly in ships or vehicles) or forwards.

* Herrick

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

To lift with difficulty; to raise with some effort; to lift (a heavy thing).

We heaved the chest-of-doors on to the second-floor landing.

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

* Alexander Pope

And the huge columns heave into the sky.

* Gray

where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap

* E. Everett

the heaving sods of Bunker Hill

(transitive, mining, geology) To displace (a vein, stratum).

To cause to swell or rise, especially in repeated exertions.

The wind heaved the waves.

To rise and fall.

Her chest heaved with emotion.

* Prior

Frequent for breath his panting bosom heaves .

* Byron

the heaving plain of ocean

To utter with effort.

She heaved a sigh and stared out of the window.

* Shakespeare

The wretched animal heaved forth such groans.

To throw, cast.

The cap'n hove the body overboard.

(nautical) To pull up with a rope or cable.

Heave up the anchor there, boys!

(ambitransitive, nautical) To move in a certain direction or into a certain position or situation.

to heave the ship ahead

:* {{quote-book

, year=1914 , year_published= , edition= , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=At the Earth's Core , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=The Sagoths were now not over two hundred and fifty yards behind us, and I saw that it was hopeless for us to expect to escape other than by a ruse. There was a bare chance of saving Ghak and Perry, and as I reached the branching of the canyon I took the chance. Pausing there I waited until the foremost Sagoth hove into sight. Ghak and Perry had disappeared around a bend in the left-hand canyon, }}

To make an effort to vomit; to retch.

To vomit.

The smell of the old cheese was enough to make you heave .

To make an effort to raise, throw, or move anything; to strain to do something difficult.

* Atterbury

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

Derived terms

*heave in sight *)

Noun

(en noun)

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

{{quote-Fanny Hill, part=2 , and now the bed shook, the curtains rattled so, that I could scarce hear the sighs and murmurs, the heaves and pantings that accompanied the action, from the beginning to the end}}

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.

A horizontal dislocation in a metallic lode, taking place at an intersection with another lode.

(nautical) The measure of extent to which a nautical vessel goes up and down in a short period of time. Compare with pitch.

heft

English

Alternative forms

* haft

Noun

(uncountable) Weight.

* T. Hughes

a man of his age and heft

*, chapter=5

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.}}

Heaviness, the feel of weight.

* '>citation

(Northern England) A piece of mountain pasture to which a farm animal has become hefted.

An animal that has become hefted thus.

(West of Ireland) Poor condition in sheep caused by mineral deficiency.

The act or effort of heaving; violent strain or exertion.

* (William Shakespeare)

He cracks his gorge, his sides, / With violent hefts .

(US, dated, colloquial) The greater part or bulk of anything.

Derived terms

* hefty

Verb

(en verb)

To lift up; especially, to lift something heavy.

He hefted the sack of concrete into the truck.

To test the weight of something by lifting it.

(Northern England and Scotland) To become accustomed and attached to an area of mountain pasture.

(obsolete) past participle of to heave.

Synonyms

* hoist