heavy

English

Etymology 1

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 *keh₂p- (“to take, grasp, hold”).

Cognates:
Cognate with Scots hevy, havy, heavy (“heavy”), Dutch hevig (“violent, severe, intense, acute”), Middle Low German hēvich (“violent, fierce, intense”), German hebig (compare heftig (“fierce, severe, intense, violent, heavy”)), Icelandic höfugur (“heavy, weighty, important”), Latin capāx (“large, wide, roomy, spacious, capacious, capable, apt”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

heavy (comparative heavier, superlative heaviest)

Four men lifting a heavy sideboard.
  1. (of a physical object) Having great weight.
  2. (of a topic) Serious, somber.
  3. Not easy to bear; burdensome; oppressive.
    heavy yokes, expenses, undertakings, trials, news, etc.
  4. (Britain, 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. (of a person) Doing the specified activity more intensely than most other people.
    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 2057953:
      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.
  11. (of the eyes) With eyelids difficult to keep open due to tiredness.
    • 2021 December 1, The Road Ahead, page 11, column 3:
      Watch for the signs of fatigue, including yawning, blinking and heavy eyes.
  12. (of food) High in fat or protein; difficult to digest.
    Cheese-stuffed sausage is too heavy to eat before exercising.
  13. Of great force, power, or intensity; deep or intense.
    • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., OCLC 18478577; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, volume 1, New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, OCLC 988016180:
      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.
    it was a heavy storm;  a heavy slumber in bed;  a heavy punch
  14. Laden to a great extent.
    his eyes were heavy with sleep;  she was heavy with child
  15. Laden with that which is weighty; encumbered; burdened; bowed down, either with an actual burden, or with grief, pain, disappointment, etc.
  16. Slow; sluggish; inactive; or lifeless, dull, inanimate, stupid.
    a heavy gait, looks, manners, style, etc.
    a heavy writer or book
  17. Impeding motion; cloggy; clayey.
    a heavy road; a heavy soil
  18. Not raised or leavened.
    heavy bread
  19. (of wines or spirits) Having much body or strength.
  20. (obsolete) With child; pregnant.
  21. (physics) Containing one or more isotopes that are heavier than the normal one.
  22. (petroleum) Having high viscosity.
  23. (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.
  24. (nautical, military) Heavily-armed.
  25. (aviation, of an aircraft) Having a relatively high takeoff weight and payload,
    1. especially, 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. ”
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms

Pages starting with “heavy”.

Descendants
  • Sranan Tongo: hebi
Translations
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

heavy (comparative more heavy, superlative most heavy)

  1. In a heavy manner; weightily; heavily; gravely.
    heavy laden with their sins
  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
Derived terms

Noun

heavy (plural heavies or heavys)

  1. 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. (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.
  4. (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.”
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

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.

References

Etymology 2

heave +‎ -y

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈhiːvi/
    • Audio (UK)(file)

Adjective

heavy (comparative more heavy, superlative most heavy)

  1. Having the heaves.
    a heavy horse

See also

References
  • heavy at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

Finnish

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈheʋi/, [ˈhe̞ʋi]

Noun

heavy

  1. Alternative spelling of hevi (“heavyrock”).

Declension
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
instructive — heavyin
abessive heavyttä heavyittä
comitative — heavyineen
Possessive forms of heavy (type valo)
possessor singular plural
1st person heavyni heavymme
2nd person heavysi heavynne
3rd person heavynsä

German

Etymology

Borrowed from English heavy.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈhɛvi/

Adjective

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

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English heavy (metal).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈxebi/ [ˈxe.β̞i]
  • Rhymes: -ebi

Adjective

heavy (plural heavys)

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

Usage notes

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
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