heft

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The feel of the weight of something; heaviness.

   “A high quality hammer should have good balance and heft.”

   “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.”

   “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.”

   “Unlike most moons of the solar system, ours has the heft to pull itself into a sphere.”

   “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.”

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 worse for such a fall as that.”

   “"Look at the heft of 'n [a baby]," said the proud father, "entirely drags ye down, Miss Sybil, 'e do."”

   “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.”

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,—[…]”

   “He run to South America or somewheres, taking the heft of the firm's money with him.”

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.”

   “It was a tremendous heft to raise the boat on to the wall and push it over, but somehow she managed it; […]”

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.”

   “The socket of the rim lock tore off to one good heft of the shoulder, and we were in.”

8. (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.”

9. (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.
10. (Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal)A number of sheets of paper fastened together, as to form a book or a notebook.
11. (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.”

verb

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.”

   “[…] Bevis was to "heft" his gun to the shoulder, and only to press it there sufficiently to feel that the butt touched him.”

   “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.”

   “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; […]”

   “[H]e found that he was hefting the bench leg, curiously, as though trying its balance, as if he had never touched it before.”

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 test the weight of (something) by lifting.

   “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?"”

5. (UK, US, dialectal, form-of, informal, obsolete, participle, past)simple past and past participle of heave
6. (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.”

7. (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.”

8. (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.”

9. (Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal, intransitive, reflexive)Of a thing: to establish or settle itself in a place.
10. (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.”

11. (Northern-England, Scotland, UK, US, broadly, dialectal, informal)To cause (urine) to be held in a person's bladder.