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heft

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heft¹

  • /hɛft/ Canada, US, UK
  • /heft/ Australia, New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɛft

Where it comes from

The noun is derived from Late Middle English heft (“heaviness; something heavy, a weight”), from heven (“to lift, raise”) + -th (suffix denoting a condition, quality, state of being, etc., forming nouns), by analogy with the development of weft from weven (modern English weave), etc. (also compare words like cleft from cleave, and theft from thieve, where the development occurred in Old English or earlier languages). The English word is analysable as heave + -t (suffix forming nouns from verbs).

The verb is probably derived from the noun.

noun hefts · haft

  1. countable, uncountable The feel of the weight of something; heaviness. A high quality hammer should have good balance and heft.

    Similar: heftiness

  2. US, countable, dialectal, uncountable The force exerted by an object due to gravitation; weight. The man had been carried out of the yard while the fire was still burning; […] Public opinion was much divided, some holding that it would go hard with a man of his age and heft; but the common belief seemed to be that he was of that sort "as'd take a deal o'killin'," and that he would be none the w
  3. countable, figuratively, uncountable Graveness, seriousness; gravity. He's got a good voice, and reads well; but come to a sermon—wal, ain't no gret heft in't.
  4. countable, figuratively, uncountable Importance, influence; weight. Put more baldly, the reason why Republicans and British Conservatives started giving each other copies of Atlas Shrugged in the 80s was that [Ayn] Rand seemed to grant intellectual heft to the prevailing ethos of the time.
  5. US, countable, dated, informal, uncountable The greater part of something; the bulk, the mass. The turkey's nest was islanded with a fragrant swath,—the "heft" of the crop noted and rejoiced over,—[…]
  6. UK, countable, dialectal, uncountable An act of lifting; a lift. Deigning no answer, the sturdy parson seized the bigger of the two ash staves, and laying the butt of the other for a fulcrum, gave the stuck wheel such a powerful heft, that the whole cart rattled, and the crates began to dance.
  7. countable, obsolete, uncountable An act of heaving (lifting with difficulty); an instance of violent exertion or straining. [I]f one preſent / Th'abhor'd Ingredient [a spider in a drink] to his eye, make knovvne / Hovv he hath drunke, he cracks his gorge, his ſides / VVith violent Hefts: I haue drunke, and ſeene the Spider.

verb hefts · hefting · hefted

  1. UK, US, dialectal, informal, transitive To lift or lift up (something, especially a heavy object). He hefted the sack of concrete into the truck.

    Similar: hoist

  2. UK, US, dialectal, informal, transitive To test the weight of (something) by lifting. [H]e took up a root or two [potatoes] here and there, and "hefted it," (that is to say, poised it carefully to judge the weight, as one does a letter for the post) and then stroked the sleek skin lovingly, and put it down gingerly for fear of any bruise.
  3. UK, US, dialectal, figuratively, informal, transitive To evaluate or test (someone or something). Sim's ben to college, and he's putty smart and chipper. Come to heft him, tho', he don't weigh much 'longside o' Parson Cushing.
  4. UK, US, dialectal, informal, intransitive To have (substantial) weight; to weigh. "[I]t's yellow! is it gold?" / "My!" exclaimed his mother, weighing it in her hand, "I do believe it is. Brass never would heft so much, and would be green. Bless me, Wat, this is a find! Where ever did you come by it? In the gutters, do you say?"

heft²

  • /hɛft/ Canada, US, UK
  • /heft/ Australia, New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɛft

Where it comes from

From heave + -t (suffix forming the past and/or past participle forms of verbs).

verb

  1. UK, US, dialectal, informal, obsolete, participle simple past and past participle of heave

heft³

  • /hɛft/ Canada, US, UK
  • /heft/ Australia, New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɛft

Where it comes from

The noun is borrowed from Scots heft, haft (“pasture which sheep are familiar with; attachment of sheep to a pasture; number of sheep grazing on such a pasture; (obsolete) place of residence; situation”), probably from Old Norse hefð (“occupation; possession; prescriptive right”), from hafa (“to have; to keep, retain”), from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to have; to hold”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-, *keh₂p- (“to hold; to seize”).

The verb is borrowed from Scots heft (“to cause (cattle or sheep) to become familiar with a pasture; of animals: to become familiar with a pasture; (figurative) of a person: to become settled in an occupation or place”), probably from Old Norse hefða (“to acquire prescriptive rights”), from hefð (noun): see above.

Both the noun and verb may have been influenced by Scots heft (“(noun) handle of an implement, haft; (verb) to fit (an implement) with a handle”).

noun hefts · haft

  1. Northern England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal A piece of pastureland which farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) have become accustomed to. [S]he came to fetch her [bairn] out of ill haft and waur guiding.
  2. Northern England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal A flock or group of farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) which have become accustomed to a particular piece of pastureland.

verb hefts · hefting · hefted · haft

  1. Northern England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal To accustom (a flock or group of farm animals, chiefly cattle or sheep) to a piece of pastureland. For I had been "hefting" (as the business is called in our Galloway land) a double score of lambs which had just been brought from a neighbouring lowland farm to summer upon our scanty upland pastures. Now it is the nature of sheep to return if they can to their mother-hill, or, at least, to stray f
  2. Northern England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, figuratively To establish or settle (someone) in an occupation or place of residence. [I]t may be as well that Alan and you do not meet till he is hefted as it were to his new calling.
  3. Northern England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, figuratively To establish or plant (something) firmly in a place; to fix, to root, to settle. […] I hae heard him say, that the root of the matter was mair deeply hafted in that wild muirland parish than in the Canogate of Edinburgh.
  4. Northern England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal Of a thing: to establish or settle itself in a place.

heft⁴

  • /hɛft/ Canada, US, UK
  • /heft/ Australia, New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɛft

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Scots heft, from Old Norse hepta (“to bind; to hinder, impede; to hold back, restrain”), from Proto-Germanic *haftijaną (“to bind; to secure”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to hold, seize”).

verb hefts · hefting · hefted

  1. Northern England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal To cause (milk) to be held in a cow's udder until the latter becomes hard and swollen, either by not milking the cow or by stopping up the teats, to make the cow look healthy; also, to cause (a cow) to have an udder in this condition. You also see the impropriety of hefting or holding the milk in cows until the udder is distended much beyond its ordinary size, for the sake of shewing its utmost capacity for holding milk, a device which all cow-dealers, and indeed every one who has a cow for sale in a market, scrupulously uses. […
  2. Northern England, Scotland, UK, US, broadly, dialectal To cause (urine) to be held in a person's bladder.

heft⁵

  • /hɛft/ Canada, US, UK
  • /heft/ Australia, New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɛft

Where it comes from

Borrowed from German Heft (“issue of a serial publication, number; magazine; notebook; notepad”), a back-formation from heften (“to fasten”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haftijaną (“to bind; to secure”): see further at etymology 4.

noun hefts

  1. Northern England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal A number of sheets of paper fastened together, as to form a book or a notebook.
  2. Northern England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal A part of a serial publication; a fascicle, an issue, a number. Such an organ is now to be published by the house of J[oseph] Ricker, in Giessen, Ephemeris für Semitische Epigraphik, edited by Dr. Mark Lidzbarki.^([sic]) […] The size of the "hefts" will depend on the material requiring attention, and the annual volume is to cost about 15 marks.

Translations

Every language

noun feel of the weight of something — see also heaviness

Españolpesadez
DeutschSchwere
Русскийтя́жесть tjážestʹ

noun force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight

Españolpeso
Françaispoids
DeutschGewicht
Italianopeso
Русскийвес ves

verb to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift

Françaishisser
Italianosollevare
Românăridica
Русскийподнима́ть podnimátʹ, подня́ть podnjátʹ

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MLA

"heft." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/heft. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

heft. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/heft

Chicago

"heft." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/heft.

BibTeX
@misc{heft_2026,
  title = {heft},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/heft},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}