Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HEAVE, v.t. [heev; pret. heaved, or hove; pp. heaved, hove, formerly hoven. Sax. heafan, hefan, heofan; Goth. hafyan; Sw. häfva; D. heffen; G. heben; Dan. hæver, to heave; Gr. καφεω, to breathe; καπυω, id. Class Gb.]

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.]