HEAVING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does heaving mean? 

• HEAVING (noun)
  The noun HEAVING has 4 senses:

1. an upward movement (especially a rhythmical rising and falling)

2. breathing heavily (as after exertion)

3. the act of lifting something with great effort

4. throwing something heavy (with great effort)

  Familiarity information: HEAVING used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HEAVING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An upward movement (especially a rhythmical rising and falling)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

heave; heaving

Context example:

the heaving of waves on a rough sea

Hypernyms ("heaving" is a kind of...):

ascension; ascent; rise; rising (a movement upward)

Derivation:

heave (rise and move, as in waves or billows)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Breathing heavily (as after exertion)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

heaving; panting

Hypernyms ("heaving" is a kind of...):

breathing; external respiration; respiration; ventilation (the bodily process of inhalation and exhalation; the process of taking in oxygen from inhaled air and releasing carbon dioxide by exhalation)

Derivation:

heave (breathe noisily, as when one is exhausted)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of lifting something with great effort

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

heave; heaving

Hypernyms ("heaving" is a kind of...):

ascending; ascension; ascent; rise (the act of changing location in an upward direction)

Derivation:

heave (lift or elevate)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Throwing something heavy (with great effort)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

heave; heaving

Context example:

he was not good at heaving passes

Hypernyms ("heaving" is a kind of...):

throw (the act of throwing (propelling something with a rapid movement of the arm and wrist))

Derivation:

heave (throw with great effort)

 Context examples 

In an hour, what of this and of rests between the heaving, I had hoisted it to the point where I could hoist no more.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting against his emotion.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Using the sled-lashing for a heaving rope, and with the aid of the dogs, he hoisted the coffin to the top of the scaffold.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He leaned well over its neck as he rode, and made a heaving with his shoulders at every bound as though he were lifting the steed instead of it carrying him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He closed the door behind him, and then he stood with clenched hands and heaving breast, choking down some overmastering emotion.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Gradually her eyes closed, and she sat, stock still; only by the gentle heaving of her bosom could one know that she was alive.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I ate my breakfast before the sun was up; and heaving anchor, the wind being favourable, I steered the same course that I had done the day before, wherein I was directed by my pocket compass.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

At first I perceived that he tried to suppress his emotion; he placed his hands before his eyes, and my voice quivered and failed me as I beheld tears trickle fast from between his fingers; a groan burst from his heaving breast.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I been in places hot as pitch, and mates dropping round with Yellow Jack, and the blessed land a-heaving like the sea with earthquakes—what to the doctor know of lands like that? —and I lived on rum, I tell you.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

But that is not your pity, Jane; it is not the feeling of which your whole face is full at this moment—with which your eyes are now almost overflowing—with which your heart is heaving—with which your hand is trembling in mine.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)