heavy - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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)).

heavy (comparative heavier, superlative heaviest)

Four men lifting a heavy sideboard.

  1. (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.
    1. (of a person) Heavyset: overweight.
      When he was a child he was rather heavy, but today he is impressively fit.
  2. (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." "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."
  3. Not easy to bear; burdensome; oppressive.
    heavy yokes, expenses, undertakings, trials, news, etc.
  4. (British, slang, dated) Good.
    This film is heavy.
  5. (dated, late 1960s, 1970s, US) Profound.
    The Moody Blues are, like, heavy.
  6. (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
  7. (slang) Armed.
    Come heavy, or not at all.
  8. (of music) Loud, distorted, or intense.
    Metal is heavier than rock.
  9. (of weather) Hot and humid.
  10. 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.
  1. (of the eyes) With eyelids difficult to keep open due to tiredness.
  1. (of food) High in fat or protein; difficult to digest.
    Cheese-stuffed sausage is too heavy to eat before exercising.
  2. Of great force, power, or intensity; deep or intense.
    it was a heavy storm; a heavy slumber in bed; a heavy punch
  1. 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
  1. Slow; sluggish; inactive; or lifeless, dull, inanimate, stupid.
    a heavy gait, looks, manners, style, etc.
    a heavy writer or book
  1. Impeding motion; cloggy; clayey.
  1. Not raised or leavened.
    heavy bread
  2. (of wines or spirits) Having much body or strength.
  3. (obsolete) With child; pregnant.
  4. (physics) Containing one or more isotopes that are heavier than the normal one.
  5. (oil industry) Of petroleum, having high viscosity.
  6. (finance) Of a market: in which the price of shares is declining.
  1. (nautical, military) Heavily-armed.
  2. (aviation, of an aircraft) Having a relatively high takeoff weight and payload.
  3. 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.”

English terms starting with “heavy”

having great weight — see also ponderous

serious

of rate of flow: high

slang: armed

heavy (comparative more heavy, superlative most heavy)

  1. In a heavy manner; weightily; heavily; gravely.
    Heavy-laden with their sins, time hung heavy
  2. (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.
  3. (India, colloquial) very

In a heavy manner

heavy (plural heavies or heavys)

  1. (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.
  2. (slang) A doorman, bouncer or bodyguard.
    A fight started outside the bar but the heavies came out and stopped it.
  3. 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.
  4. (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.
  5. (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.”
  6. (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.
  7. (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.

bad guy

slang: doorman

heavy (third-person singular simple present heavies, present participle heavying, simple past and past participle heavied)

  1. (often with "up") To make heavier.
    They piled their goods on the donkey's back, heavying up an already backbreaking load.
  2. To sadden. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  3. (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.

Proto-Indo-European *kap-

English heavy

From heave + -y.

heavy (comparative more heavy, superlative most heavy)

  1. Having the heaves.
    a heavy horse

heavy

  1. alternative spelling of hevi (“heavyrock”)

Borrowed from English heavy.

heavy (strong nominative masculine singular heavyer, not comparable)

  1. (predicative, colloquial, probably slightly dated) heavy; intense; serious; shocking (extraordinary, especially in a bad way)
    Synonyms: heftig, krass, nicht ohne, ein starkes Stück

Unadapted borrowing from English heavy (metal).

heavy m or f (masculine and feminine plural heavys)

  1. heavy (pertaining to heavy metal)
  2. heavy (intense)
  3. (Dominican Republic, informal) cool

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.