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.
Meanings
(countable, uncountable) The feel of the weight of something; heaviness.
I pictured him doing violence to his better nature, and only wanting a good heft of circumstance to enable him to throw off his load of deviltry. 1888, Paul Cushing, “The Plateau Mine”, in The Blacksmith of Voe […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1892, →OCLC, page 255:
But Durindan at laſt fell vvith ſuch heft, / Full on the circle of Rogeros ſhield, / That halfe vvay through the Argent byrd it cleft, / And pierſt the core of male [i.e., mail] that vvas vvithin, / And found a paſſage to the verie skin. 1591, [Ludovico Ariosto], “The XXX. Booke”, in Iohn Haringtõ [i.e., John Harington], transl., Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse, […], London: […] Richard Field […], →OCLC, stanza 51, page 245, column 1:
Unlike most moons of the solar system, ours has the heft to pull itself into a sphere. 2014 September 7, Natalie Angier, “The Moon comes around again [print version: Revisiting a moon that still has secrets to reveal: Supermoon revives interest in its violent origins and hidden face]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2023:
A high quality hammer should have good balance and heft.
The skull [of a Hubbs' beaked whale] was an awkward armload. Bizarrely, its size, shape, and long, narrow bill brought to mind the head of Big Bird from Sesame Street, but with none of bird-bone's lightness: It had heft and density. 2021 March 30, J[ames] B[ernard] MacKinnon, “An Entire Group of Whales has Somehow Escaped Human Attention”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 May 2024:
(US, countable, dialectal, qualifier:dated except UK, uncountable) The force exerted by an object due to gravitation; weight.
"Look at the heft of 'n [a baby]," said the proud father, "entirely drags ye down, Miss Sybil, 'e do." 1888–1889, Maxwell Gray [pseudonym; Mary Gleed Tuttiett], “Light and Shade”, in The Reproach of Annesley. […], volume I, London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., […], published 1889, →OCLC, part III, page 260:
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 worse for such a fall as that. 1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], “Englebourn Village”, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], part 1st, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, →OCLC, page 302:
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. 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, pages 115–116:
He's got a good voice, and reads well; but come to a sermon—wal, ain't no gret heft in't. 1878, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “The Illumination”, in Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives, New York, N.Y.: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, →OCLC, page 35:
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. 2017 April 10, Jonathan Freedland, “The new age of Ayn Rand: How she won over Trump and Silicon Valley”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 May 2024:
(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,—[…] 1865, [Adeline Dutton Train Whitney], “The Secret at the Hartshornes”, in The Gayworthys: A Story of Threads and Thrums. […], Boston, Mass.: [A. K.] Loring, […], →OCLC, page 49:
He run to South America or somewheres, taking the heft of the firm's money with him. 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 7:
(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. 1882, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, “Parson Short”, in Christowell. A Dartmoor Tale. […], volume I, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 35:
It was a tremendous heft to raise the boat on to the wall and push it over, but somehow she managed it; […] 1888, Paul Cushing, “A Gust of the Soul and⸺”, in The Blacksmith of Voe […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1892, →OCLC, page 189:
(countable, obsolete, uncountable) An act of heaving (lifting with difficulty); an instance of violent exertion or straining.
The socket of the rim lock tore off to one good heft of the shoulder, and we were in. 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 82:
[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. c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 282, column 1:
sq rëndësia (force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight) · es peso (force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight) · nl gewichtigheid (feel of the weight of something — see also heaviness) · sq rëndesë (force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight) · de Gewicht (force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight) · de Schwere (feel of the weight of something — see also heaviness) · fi paino (force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight) · it peso (force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight) · ru тя́жесть (feel of the weight of something — see also heaviness) · sv tyngd (feel of the weight of something — see also heaviness) · cs váha (feel of the weight of something — see also heaviness) · fr poids (force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight) · sq rëndesë (feel of the weight of something — see also heaviness) · ru вес (force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight) · nl gewicht (force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight) · cs tíha (force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight) · sv tyngd (force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight) · es pesadez (feel of the weight of something — see also heaviness) · fi paino (feel of the weight of something — see also heaviness)
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.
Meanings
(UK, US, dialectal, informal, transitive) To lift or lift up (something, especially a heavy object).
[…] Bevis was to "heft" his gun to the shoulder, and only to press it there sufficiently to feel that the butt touched him. 1882, Richard Jefferies, “Shooting with Double-barrels”, in Bevis: The Story of a Boy […], volume III, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 254:
And here they must make the long portage, and the boys sweat in the sun; / And they heft and pack, and they haul and track, and each must do his trick; […] 1912, Robert W[illiam] Service, “Athabaska Dick”, in Rhymes of a Rolling Stone, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 46:
[H]e found that he was hefting the bench leg, curiously, as though trying its balance, as if he had never touched it before. 1932, William Faulkner, chapter 14, in Light in August, [New York, N.Y.]: Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, →OCLC; republished London: Chatto & Windus, 1933, →OCLC, page 308:
I'd say, put irons on his shackles (wrists), a omber (horse-collar) o' hemp around his neck, sit him on a dung-cart, and drive him aneath th' tawest whoke-tree (oak-tree) in the parish, throw th' t'other end of th' hemp o'er a good stout limb, and let every honest man in Voe lend a hand to heft th' rogue into th' air. 1888, Paul Cushing, “A Witness Tells His Tale”, in The Blacksmith of Voe […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1892, →OCLC, page 176:
He hefted the sack of concrete into the truck.
(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. 1894, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, “The Potato-field”, in Perlycross: A Tale of the Western Hills, London: Sampson Low, Marston, & Company […], →OCLC, page 58:
(UK, US, dialectal, figuratively, informal, transitive) To test the weight of (something) by lifting. ▸ 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. 1878, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “The Illumination”, in Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives, New York, N.Y.: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, →OCLC, pages 34–35:
(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?" 1893, Charlotte M[ary] Yonge, “The Hoard”, in The Treasures in the Marshes, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Whittaker, […], →OCLC, page 12:
it sollevare (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · nl optillen (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · uk підійма́ти (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · cs zvednout (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · io levar (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · nl tillen (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · ru подня́ть (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · nl wikken (to test the weight of (something) by lifting) · uk підійня́ти (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · fi nostaa (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · nl opheffen (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · cs potěžkávat (to test the weight of (something) by lifting) · uk підніма́ти (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · cs zvedat (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · nl wegen (to test the weight of (something) by lifting) · ro ridica (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · fr hisser (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · ru поднима́ть (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · fi punnita (to test the weight of (something) by lifting) · nl hijsen (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · cs potěžkat (to test the weight of (something) by lifting) · uk підня́ти (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift) · nl heffen (to lift or lift up (something) — see also lift)
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”).
Meanings
(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. 1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter VI, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 147:
(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.
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Translations (2)
fi tuttu laidun (piece of pastureland which farm animals have become accustomed to) · fi laitumen totutelleet eläimet (flock or group of farm animals which have become accustomed to a particular piece of pastureland)
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”).
Meanings
(Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal, transitive) 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 farther and farther off, seeking some well-known landmark. So, till such new-comers grow satisfied and "heft" (or attach) themselves to the soil, they must be watched carefully both night and day. 1898, S[amuel] R[utherford] Crockett, “The Year Terrible”, in The Standard Bearer, London: Methuen and Co. […], →OCLC, page 6:
(Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, figuratively, informal, transitive) 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. 1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Letter IX. Alexander Fairford, W.S. to Mr Darsie Latimer.”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 193:
(Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, figuratively, informal, transitive) 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. 1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter II, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume IV, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 28:
(Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal, intransitive, reflexive) Of a thing: to establish or settle itself in a place.
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Translations (1)
fi totutella (to accustom (a flock or group of farm animals) to a piece of pastureland)
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”).
Meanings
(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.
The heavy udders of hefted cows trailed on the ground, dripping milk on the greensward. Stray cattle ate the rich grass. 1922, Patrick MacGill, “The Inaugural Dinner”, in Lanty Hanlon: A Comedy of Irish Life, Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland: Brandon Book Publishers, published 1983, →ISBN, section III, page 259:
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. […] [E]very farmer is surely aware, or ought to be aware, that the person who purchases a hefted cow on account of the magnitude of its udder exhibited in the market, gains nothing by the device; because, when the cow comes into his possession, she will never be hefted, and, of course, never shew the greatest magnitude of udder, and never, of course, confer the benefit for which she was bought in preference to others with udders in a more natural state. If, then, purchasers derive no benefit from hefting, because they do not allow hefting, why do they encourage so cruel and afterwards injurious practice in dealers? 1844, Henry Stephens, “Of Cows Calving, and of Calves”, in The Book of the Farm, […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, paragraph 2106, page 460:
(Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, broadly, dialectal, informal) To cause (urine) to be held in a person's bladder.
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Translations (2)
fi jättää lypsämättä (to cause (milk) to be held in a cow’s udder until the latter becomes hard and swollen) · fi pidätellä (to cause (urine) to be held in a person’s bladder)
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.
Meanings
(Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal) A number of sheets of paper fastened together, as to form a book or a notebook.
(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. 1900 January 25, “Notes”, in The Nation, volume 70, number 1804, New York, N.Y.: Nation Associates, →ISSN, →OCLC, page LXX, column 1:
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Translations (1)
fi nidos (number of sheets of paper fastened together)