Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use heave in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Heave means to lift with difficulty; to raise with some effort; to lift (a heavy thing). Example: “We heaved the chest-of-drawers up to the second-floor landing.”

Examples of heave by meaning

verbTo lift with difficulty; to raise with some effort; to lift (a heavy thing).

  • We heaved the chest-of-drawers up to the second-floor landing.
  • He hove himself out of the bed.

verbTo throw, cast.

  • They hove rocks into the pond.
  • The cap'n hove the body overboard.

verbTo rise and fall.

  • Her chest heaved with emotion.

verbTo utter with effort.

  • She heaved a sigh and stared out of the window.

verbTo pull up with a rope or cable.

  • Heave up the anchor there, boys!

verbTo cause to swell or rise, especially in repeated exertions.

  • The wind heaved the waves.

verbTo move in a certain direction or into a certain position or situation.

  • to heave the ship ahead
  • Pausing there I waited until the foremost Sagoth hove into sight.1914 April 4–25, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Sly One”, in At the Earth’s Core, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co....

verbTo retch, to make an effort to vomit; to vomit.

  • The smell of the old cheese was enough to make you heave.

More sentences with heave

  • I have the dry heaves, I rather just throw up and get it over with.From the entry heaves
  • All at once, let’s heave on the rope!From the entry rope
  • A ship surges forwards, sways sideways and heaves up.From the entry surge
  • I could finally heave a sigh of relief.From the entry sigh of relief
  • I smiled, trying to mirror his enthusiasm then excused myself to dry heave in the toilets.2021 August 13, Fern Brady, “Hot shame, dry heaving and dream audiences: a standup’s return to Edinburgh fringe”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry dry-heave
  • Two dots were followed by a heave over deep mid-wicket, then came the outrageous moment of fortune.2019 July 14, Stephan Shemilt, “England win Cricket World Cup: Ben Stokes stars in dramatic finale against New Zealand”, in BBC Sport…. From the entry dot
  • Santa found himself with a heaving playgroundful of adoring tots dangling in clusters off his legs.2006 December 18, “It’s no joke at Santa boot camp: Our trainee Father Christmas, Sam Leith, faces the ultimate test – a playground of…. From the entry playgroundful
  • Aimee heaved herself up from the chair, dropping the channel flicker as she rose.2004, Mary Beth Miller, Aimee, page 132. From the entry channel flicker
  • Nat was puffing and heaving like a blowie on a jetty.2000, Wendy Jenkins, Gunna Burn, page 152. From the entry blowie
  • Sounds like a southern romance, Fabio drooling over Charlene's heaving bosom.1997, Roderick Peter MacIntyre, Takes: Stories for Young Adults, Thistledown Press, →ISBN, page 58. From the entry Charlene
  • Heave they did, all unopposed, and tumbled arselong when the bar came about.1981, John Barth, Giles goat-boy. From the entry arselong
  • Every morning for months, she would awake with the dry heaves.1980 December 6, Cindy Rizzo, “Jewish, Lesbian, Feminist, Psychologist, Author—All of the above and more”, in Gay Community News, volume…. From the entry dry-heave
  • First then a heaving line or a point line is attached and hauled across.1977, Gerald Forsberg, “Stricken vessels. Ocean towage”, in Salvage from the Sea, London; Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire: Routledge and…. From the entry teach grandma how to suck eggs
  • Only then can the casualty hope to heave over the actual tow-wire from the tug.1977, Gerald Forsberg, “Stricken vessels. Ocean towage”, in Salvage from the Sea, London; Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire: Routledge and…. From the entry teach grandma how to suck eggs
  • Grunting, he heaved to his feet and looked out the lucilite port at the surface of Saturn.1942 March, Gord Peck, “He Was Poor...But He Was Honest”, in Censored, volume 1, number 3, St. Andrew's College, Aurora, page 7. From the entry plasteel
  • The sister ran after them and brought them back and had Owen heaved into the icebox.1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, page 47. From the entry icebox
  • The man in the very new overalls was just heaving a box up on the tailboard.1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep. From the entry tailboard
  • "Heave harder on that peavy handle, you gizzardless scissor-bill, or I'll put the calks to you!"1925, James Stevens, Paul Bunyan, page 32. From the entry gizzardless
  • The beautiful woman threw off her sabletrimmed wrap, displaying her queenly shoulders and heaving embonpoint.1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC. From the entry embonpoint
  • The streets were thunderous; a vast energy heaved under the universal coating of dinginess.1918, Booth Tarkington, chapter 31, in The Magnificent Ambersons, Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Co., page 437. From the entry dinginess
  • His portly middle section, rising beyond like a small hill, heaved rhythmically.1913, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 14, in The Little Nugget. From the entry portly
  • "You know what Paddington is like when it's absolutely heaving.2022 February 23, Paul Clifton, “A demand for family-friendly trains”, in RAIL, number 951, page 40. From the entry heaving
  • Annabelle hauled two more bags out to the sidewalk and heaved them on top of the pile by the curb.2021, Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness, Canongate Books (2022), page 358. From the entry nonrecyclable
  • Silk Road was, in some sense, a last heave—a Hail Mary in the parlance of Ross's football-mad hometown.2015, Nathaniel Popper, chapter 6, in Digital Gold, 1st edition, New York: Harper, →ISBN, →OCLC. From the entry Hail Mary
  • The boys would heave rakefuls of the sodden plant life over the wooden frame into the truck bed.2015, S. Morrison, The Literature of Waste: Material Ecopoetics and Ethical Matter. From the entry rakeful
  • With the boats secured, I left my engine on idle and jumped across and together we heaved to reright the boat.2014, Ranulph Fiennes, To the Ends of the Earth. From the entry reright
  • He knew how to lead songs: just sing the first line, then smile and machoistically heave your arm.2013, Mark Gaber, RIJICHO, page 126. From the entry machoistically
  • The pool was heaving with screaming kids.2006 October 26, Krusty, “Krusty's Holiday”, in uk.rec.motorcycles (Usenet). From the entry heaving
  • So, she gave him the old heave ho!2003, Garrison Flint, The Case of the Twisted Twins Murders: A Raymond Masters Mystery, G. F. Hutchison Press, →ISBN, page 89. From the entry give someone the old heave-ho

Meaning of heave

  1. verb To lift with difficulty; to raise with some effort; to lift (a heavy thing).
  2. verb To throw, cast.
  3. verb To rise and fall.

Full definition of heave

Questions about heave in a sentence

How do you use heave in a sentence?
Heave is used as a verb and noun. For example: “We heaved the chest-of-drawers up to the second-floor landing.”
What is a short sentence with heave?
“Her chest heaved with emotion.”
What does heave mean?
Heave means to lift with difficulty; to raise with some effort; to lift (a heavy thing).

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heave (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use heave in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/heave. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.