heavy
English
[edit]
Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English hevy, heviȝ, from Old English hefiġ, hefeġ, hæfiġ (“heavy; important, grave, severe, serious; oppressive, grievous; slow, dull”), from Proto-West Germanic *habīg (“heavy, hefty, weighty”), from Proto-Germanic *habīgaz (“heavy, hefty, weighty”), from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to take, grasp, hold”). Equivalent to heave + -y. Related to have.
Cognate with Scots hevy, havy, heavy (“heavy”), Saterland Frisian heeuwich, häwich (“violent, angry”), West Frisian hevich (“violent”), Dutch hevig (“violent, severe, intense, acute”), German Low German hevig (“violent, fierce, intense, angry”), German hebig (compare heftig (“fierce, severe, intense, violent, heavy”)), Icelandic höfugur (“heavy, weighty, important”), Latin capāx (“large, wide, roomy, spacious, capacious, capable, apt”).
Compare typologically Russian объёмный (obʺjómnyj), ёмкий (jómkij) (akin to име́ть (imétʹ), взять (vzjatʹ)).
Pronunciation
[edit]- enPR: hevʹi
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ˈhɛv.i/
- (Australian, New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˈhev.i/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɛvi
Adjective
[edit]heavy (comparative heavier, superlative heaviest)
- (of any physical thing) Having great weight.
- Can you help me carry this? It's really heavy.
- Use the scales to measure how heavy it is.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. […] A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.
- 2002, Eva Brann, Homeric Moments, page 48:
- But now, ten years later, after his recent shipwreck, he cannot compete as a runner, though he can outthrow the slighter Phaeacians with the heaviest discus.
- 2015 May 18, Angus Chen, How We Store Food At Home Could Be Linked To How Much We Eat:
- In other research, scientists have found that people who kept cereal out in the open were often about 20 pounds heavier than people who kept cereal behind closed doors.
- (of a person) Heavyset: overweight.
- When he was a child he was rather heavy, but today he is impressively fit.
- (of a topic) Serious, somber.
- 2020 January 8, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary[1], archived from the original on 13 February 2025:
- "We're still in an existential-stakes war with the Pa'anuri, and possibly with our own destructive tendencies." <beat panel> "Sorry. That was pretty heavy for someone who just woke up." "Oh, I'm fine. Waking up alive has ALWAYS meant spending the day trying not to be dead."
- Not easy to bear; burdensome; oppressive.
- heavy yokes, expenses, undertakings, trials, news, etc.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 5:6:
- The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod.
- 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
- The king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make.
- 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion:
- Sent hither by my Husband to impart the heavy news.
- (UK, slang, dated) Good.
- This film is heavy.
- (dated, late 1960s, 1970s, US) Profound.
- The Moody Blues are, like, heavy.
- (of a rate of flow) High, great.
- 1998, Stanley George Clayton, ""Menstruation" in Encyclopedia Britannica
- The ovarian response to gonadotropic hormones may be erratic at first, so that irregular or heavy bleeding sometimes occurs
- 1998, Stanley George Clayton, ""Menstruation" in Encyclopedia Britannica
- (slang) Armed.
- Come heavy, or not at all.
- (of music) Loud, distorted, or intense.
- Metal is heavier than rock.
- (of weather) Hot and humid.
- Doing the specified activity more intensely than most other people.
- This car is too heavy on gas.
- He was a heavy sleeper, a heavy eater and a heavy smoker – certainly not an ideal husband.
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 29, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
- He was described in the theatrical prints as the “veteran Blenkinsop”—“the useful Blenkinsop”—“that old favourite of the public, Blenkinsop”—those parts in the drama, which are called the heavy fathers, were usually assigned to this veteran, who, indeed, acted the heavy father in public, as in private life.
- (of the eyes) With eyelids difficult to keep open due to tiredness.
- 2021 December, The Road Ahead, Brisbane, page 11, column 3:
- Watch for the signs of fatigue, including yawning, blinking and heavy eyes.
- (of food) High in fat or protein; difficult to digest.
- Cheese-stuffed sausage is too heavy to eat before exercising.
- Of great force, power, or intensity; deep or intense.
- it was a heavy storm; a heavy slumber in bed; a heavy punch
- 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:
- The surf was not heavy, and there was no undertow, so we made shore easily, effecting an equally easy landing.
- 2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
- [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.
- Laden with that which is weighty; encumbered; burdened; bowed down, either with an actual burden, or with grief, pain, disappointment, etc.
- his eyes were heavy with sleep; she was heavy with child
- 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:
- The heavy [sorrowing] nobles all in council were.
- c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
- A light wife doth make a heavy husband.
- 1613, William Browne, Britannia's Pastorals:
- Seating himselfe within a darkesome cave, / (Such places heavy Saturnists doe crave,) / Where yet the gladsome day was never seene […]
- Slow; sluggish; inactive; or lifeless, dull, inanimate, stupid.
- a heavy gait, looks, manners, style, etc.
- a heavy writer or book
- c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
- whilst the heavy ploughman snores
- 1700, [John] Dryden, “Cymon and Iphigenia, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- a heavy, dull, degenerate mind
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 59:1:
- Neither [is] his ear heavy, that it cannot hear.
- Impeding motion; cloggy; clayey.
- 1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 37:
- The next day we only made some eight miles, as the road was heavy beyond all belief. It lay through a desert region of country which was ancle-deep [sic] in soda and alkali dust.
- a heavy road; a heavy soil
- Not raised or leavened.
- heavy bread
- (of wines or spirits) Having much body or strength.
- (obsolete) With child; pregnant.
- (physics) Containing one or more isotopes that are heavier than the normal one.
- (oil industry) Of petroleum, having high viscosity.
- (finance) Of a market: in which the price of shares is declining.
- 1819, The Scots Magazine, volumes 83-84, page 577:
- The very low prices of brandy, and the continuance of a heavy market for such a length of time, have begun to attract buyers; […]
- 1922, The Investor's Monthly Manual: A Newspaper for Investors, page 626:
- The oil market is heavy, each day bringing along further supplies of shares from people who have not tired of the long-continued decline in the market.
- (nautical, military) Heavily-armed.
- (aviation, of an aircraft) Having a relatively high takeoff weight and payload.
- Having a maximum takeoff weight exceeding 300,000 tons, as almost all widebodies do, generating high wake turbulence.
- 1990, Perry Francis Lafferty, The Downing of Flight Six Heavy, page 85:
- In a firm voice he said, “World Wide Six heavy is ready for takeoff.”
- Having a maximum takeoff weight exceeding 300,000 tons, as almost all widebodies do, generating high wake turbulence.
Synonyms
[edit]Antonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]English terms starting with “heavy”
- as heavy as a dead donkey
- heavier-than-air
- heavily
- heaviness
- heavisome
- heavy-armed
- heavy artillery
- heavy as a dead donkey
- heavy-bearded
- heavy bomber
- heavy bread
- heavy breather
- heavy breathing
- heavy-browed
- heavy cavalry
- heavy chain
- heavy chemicals
- heavy client
- heavy-coated
- heavy cream
- heavy cross to bear
- heavy cruiser
- heavy date
- heavy drinker
- heavy drinking
- heavy-duty
- heavy duty
- heavy-duty vehicle
- heavy earth
- heavy element
- heavy equipment
- heavyeyed
- heavy-faced
- heavy fermion
- heavy-foot
- heavy foot
- heavy-footed
- heavy-footed moa
- heavy frigate
- heavy glass
- heavy going
- heavy goods vehicle
- heavy half
- heavy-handed
- heavy-handedly
- heavy-handedness
- heavy-headed
- heavy heart
- heavyhearted
- heavy-hearted
- heavy-heartedly
- heavy-heartedness
- heavy hitter
- heavy-hitter
- heavy hydrogen
- heavy ice
- heavy icebreaker
- heavy industry
- heavy infantry
- heavy ion
- heavyish
- heavy legs
- heavy-lidded
- heavy-lift
- heavy lift
- heavy-lifting
- heavy lifting
- heavy machine gun
- heavy machinery
- heavy man
- heavy marching order
- heavy metal
- heavy metally
- heavy metal umlaut
- heavy middleweight
- heavy mineral
- heavy mob
- heavy oil
- heavy particle
- heavy petting
- heavy piece
- heavy plough
- heavy rail
- heavy rock
- heavy roller
- heavy-set, heavyset
- heavy sink
- heavy spar
- heavy swell
- heavy tail
- heavy-tailed
- heavy tank
- heavy vehicle
- heavy water
- heavy-water
- heavyweight
- heavy wet
- heavy wetter
- heavy with child
- hot and heavy
- hyperheavy
- jug-heavy
- Late Heavy Bombardment
- make heavy going of
- make heavy weather
- make heavy weather of
- nonheavy
- overheavy
- semi-heavy water
- semiheavy water
- superheavy
- super-heavy
- super heavy
- super-heavy frigate
- super heavy water
- super-heavy water
- time hangs heavy
- top-heavy
- top-heavy fraction
- top-heavy with drink
- ultraheavy
- unheavy
- wee heavy
Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]Translations
[edit]having great weight — see also ponderous
|
serious
|
slang: good
of rate of flow: high
|
slang: armed
|
of weather:hot and humid
of a person: doing the specified activity more intensely than most other people
of great force
|
laden to a great extent
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
Adverb
[edit]heavy (comparative more heavy, superlative most heavy)
- In a heavy manner; weightily; heavily; gravely.
- Heavy-laden with their sins, time hung heavy
- (colloquial, nonstandard) To a great degree; greatly.
- 1957, Ray Lawler, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Sydney: Fontana Books, published 1974, page 35:
- Olive: What was it - booze? Barney: Yeh. Been hitting it pretty heavy.
- (India, colloquial) very
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]Noun
[edit]heavy (plural heavies or heavys)
- (slang) A villain or bad guy; the one responsible for evil or aggressive acts.
- With his wrinkled, uneven face, the actor always seemed to play the heavy in films.
- (slang) A doorman, bouncer or bodyguard.
- A fight started outside the bar but the heavies came out and stopped it.
- A prominent figure; a "major player".
- 1985 December 21, Nan Donald, “Flat-picking up a Storm”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 23, page 6:
- A collection of topical themes and love songs, featuring session work by women's music "heavies" Holly Near, Mary Watkins, Linda Tillery, Robin Flower, and others.
- (journalism, slang, chiefly in the plural) A newspaper of the quality press.
- 1973, Allen Hutt, The changing newspaper, page 151:
- The comment may be offered here that the 'heavies' have been the Design Award's principal scorers, both in the overall bronze plaque days and, since, in the Daily/Sunday Class 1.
- 2006, Richard Keeble, The Newspapers Handbook:
- Reviewers in the heavies aim to impress with the depth of their knowledge and appreciation.
- (Should we move, merge or split(+) this sense?) (aviation) A relatively large multi-engined aircraft.
- 2000, Philip Woods, Shattered Allegiance, page 363:
- I read five heavies, maybe transports or tankers...could be bombers.
- 2012, Jon E. Lewis, The Mammoth Book of Heroes:
- A 76 Squadron pilot who later completed a second tour on Mosquitoes said that his colleagues on the light bombers “simply could never understand how awful being on heavies was.”
- (theater, archaic, slang) A serious theatrical role.
- 2008, William L. Slout, Theatre in a Tent, page 28:
- Payton boasted his range included "leading parts or genteel heavies, character old men, dialect parts, old women and, on occasion, soubrettes and leading ladies"; however, he was most at ease in light comedy roles.
- (military, historical) A member of the heavy cavalry.
- 1891, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, The Historic Note-book: With an Appendix of Battles, page 153:
- Cavalry […] is divided into mediums, heavies, and light cavalry. The mediums consist of 13 regiments; the heavies of 2 regiments; and the light of 13.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]bad guy
slang: doorman
Verb
[edit]heavy (third-person singular simple present heavies, present participle heavying, simple past and past participle heavied)
- (often with "up") To make heavier.
- They piled their goods on the donkey's back, heavying up an already backbreaking load.
- To sadden. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- (Australia, New Zealand, informal) To use power or wealth to exert influence on, e.g., governments or corporations; to pressure.
- The union was well known for the methods it used to heavy many businesses.
- 1985, Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives Weekly Hansard, Issue 11, Part 1, page 1570:
- […] the Prime Minister sought to evade the simple fact that he heavied Mr Reid to get rid of Dr Armstrong.
- 2001, Finola Moorhead, Darkness More Visible, Spinifex Press, Australia, page 557,
- But he is on the wrong horse, heavying me. My phone′s tapped. Well, he won′t find anything.
- 2005, David Clune, Ken Turner (editors), The Premiers of New South Wales, 1856-2005, Volume 3: 1901-2005, page 421,
- But the next two days of the Conference also produced some very visible lobbying for the succession and apparent heavying of contenders like Brereton, Anderson and Mulock - much of it caught on television.
References
[edit]
Heavy (aeronautics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Etymology 2
[edit]Etymology tree
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈhiːvi/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Adjective
[edit]heavy (comparative more heavy, superlative most heavy)
- Having the heaves.
- a heavy horse
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- “heavy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
[edit]Finnish
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]heavy
- alternative spelling of hevi (“heavyrock”)
Declension
[edit]| Inflection of heavy (Kotus type 1/valo, no gradation) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | heavy | heavyt | |
| genitive | heavyn | heavyjen | |
| partitive | heavyä | heavyjä | |
| illative | heavyyn | heavyihin | |
| singular | plural | ||
| nominative | heavy | heavyt | |
| accusative | nom. | heavy | heavyt |
| gen. | heavyn | ||
| genitive | heavyn | heavyjen | |
| partitive | heavyä | heavyjä | |
| inessive | heavyssä | heavyissä | |
| elative | heavystä | heavyistä | |
| illative | heavyyn | heavyihin | |
| adessive | heavyllä | heavyillä | |
| ablative | heavyltä | heavyiltä | |
| allative | heavylle | heavyille | |
| essive | heavynä | heavyinä | |
| translative | heavyksi | heavyiksi | |
| abessive | heavyttä | heavyittä | |
| instructive | — | heavyin | |
| comitative | See the possessive forms below. | ||
Further reading
[edit]- “heavy”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish][2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023
German
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]heavy (strong nominative masculine singular heavyer, not comparable)
- (predicative, colloquial, probably slightly dated) heavy; intense; serious; shocking (extraordinary, especially in a bad way)
- Synonyms: heftig, krass, nicht ohne, ein starkes Stück
Spanish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Unadapted borrowing from English heavy (metal).
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]heavy m or f (masculine and feminine plural heavys)
- heavy (pertaining to heavy metal)
- heavy (intense)
- (Dominican Republic, informal) cool
Usage notes
[edit]According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.
Further reading
[edit]- “heavy”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *kap- (seize)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms suffixed with -y
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɛvi
- Rhymes:English/ɛvi/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- British English
- English slang
- English dated terms
- American English
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Physics
- en:Oil industry
- en:Finance
- en:Nautical
- en:Military
- en:Aviation
- English adverbs
- English colloquialisms
- English nonstandard terms
- Indian English
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- en:Mass media
- en:Theater
- English terms with archaic senses
- English terms with historical senses
- English verbs
- Australian English
- New Zealand English
- English informal terms
- English heteronyms
- en:People
- Finnish 2-syllable words
- Finnish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Finnish/eʋi
- Rhymes:Finnish/eʋi/2 syllables
- Finnish lemmas
- Finnish nouns
- Finnish valo-type nominals
- German terms borrowed from English
- German terms derived from Old English
- German terms derived from English
- German terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- German terms derived from Middle English
- German terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *kap- (seize)
- German terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- German terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- German terms derived from substrate languages
- German 2-syllable words
- German terms with IPA pronunciation
- German terms with audio pronunciation
- German lemmas
- German adjectives
- German uncomparable adjectives
- German colloquialisms
- German dated terms
- Spanish terms borrowed from English
- Spanish unadapted borrowings from English
- Spanish terms derived from English
- Spanish 2-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/ebi
- Rhymes:Spanish/ebi/2 syllables
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish adjectives
- Spanish epicene adjectives
- Dominican Spanish
- Spanish informal terms
