▪ I. heft, n.1
(hɛft)
[A late deriv. of heave v.; app. analogical: cf. weave, weft, thieve, theft, etc., also heft pa. pple. = heaved. In sense 1, there was perh. immediate association with heavy.]
I. 1. a. Weight, heaviness, ponderousness. dial. and U.S.
| 1558 T. Phaer æneid vii. S iij b, A swarme of bees beset the bowes..and fast with feete in cluster clung..and on the top with heft they hung. 1567 Turberv. in Chalmers Eng. Poets II. 583/1 Or never crusht his head with Helmets heft. 1598 R. Grenewey Tacitus' Ann. xv. xiii. 240 Weighing downe with the heft of her bodie. 1655 Marquis of Worcester Cent. Inv. §56 That all the Weights..shall be perpetually..equal in number and heft to the one side as the other. 1848 Lowell Biglow P. Ser. i. iv. 135 Constitoounts air hendy to help a man in, But arterwards don't weigh the heft of a pin. 1864 ‘E. Kirke’ Down in Tennessee viii. 107 I's six foot three,..weigh a hun'red an' eighty, kin whip twice my heft in Secesh, bars, or rattlesnakes. 1867 Pennsylv. School Jrnl. No. 16107 The books have a heft,—a feeling of weight and solidity,—that the book fancier especially prizes. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Heft,..a heavy weight. A dead heft is a weight that cannot be moved. 1966 H. Roth Button, Button (1967) iv. 84 He was more on the lean side than supplied with heft. 1972 Sci. Amer. Dec. p. ii/2 Go ahead, pick it up. The heft tells you it's solid sterling silver. |
| fig. 1878 Mrs. Stowe Poganuc P. iii. 24 Come to a sermon—wal, ain't no gret heft in't. |
† b. Force (of falling blows). Obs.
| 1659 W. Chamberlayne Pharonnida v. v. (1820) 98 Each nimble stroke, quick..fell; yet with a heft So full of danger, most behind them left Their bloody marks. |
† 2. fig. Stress, pressure of circumstances; ‘need, emergency’ (Nares). Obs.
| 1586 Mirr. Mag., K. Forrex v, Far apart from vs we wisedome left: Forsooke each other at the greatest heft. |
3. The bulk, mass, or main part. U.S. colloq.
| 1816 Pickering Vocab. 104 A part of the crop of corn was good, but the heft of it was bad. 1849 N.Y. Herald 5 Feb. (Bartlett), He's to his shop the heft of his time. 1884 Harper's Mag. Oct. 740/1 The heft of Mr. Lane's means was placed in the boat and the house. |
II. † 4. A heave, a strain; a heaving effort. Obs.
| 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. ii. i. 45 He cracks his gorge, his sides, With violent Hefts. |
5. The act of lifting; a lift. dial.
| 1881 Blackmore Christowell iii, The sturdy parson seized the bigger of the two ash staves, and..gave the stuck wheel such a powerful heft, that the whole cart rattled. 1888 ‘P. Cushing’ Blacksm. of Voe I. Prol. 12 Giving a sudden mighty heft that was intended to do the work. 1895 E. Anglian Gloss., Heft, or Hift, a lift or a push. |
▪ II. ‖ heft, n.2
(hɛft)
Pl. hefte.
[G.]
A number of sheets of paper fastened together to form a book; spec. a division of a serial work; a part of a serial publication, a fascicle.
| 1886 Athenæum 9 Oct. 464/1 This treatise forms the fifth Heft of the second volume. 1892 Rev. Reviews Jan. 58/1 There is another interesting article..in Heft 14 of the Gartenlaube. |
▪ III. heft, n.3 local.
[Var. of haft n.2 2.]
(The sheep in) a settled or accustomed pasture-ground.
| 1960 Williamson & Boyd St. Kilda Summer 84 The Hirta flock is divided into hefts, more or less discrete groups each restricted to its own particular range. 1961 New Scientist 9 Nov. 341/2 The natural unit in hill sheep farming is the heft—the group of sheep that habitually graze within the confines of a particular area of hill ground. 1971 Country Life 28 Oct. 1166/1 Anticipated difficulties from depriving the hefted sheep of their age-old hefts or heafs have not occurred. |
▪ IV. heft, v.1 dial. and U.S. colloq.
[app. f. heft n.1]
1. To lift, lift up; to remove by lifting. Also absol.
| a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 106 Hence hefted over into Flanders. 1789 Davidson Seasons 3 (Jam.) The eagle..to the beetling cliff he hefts his prey. 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. xii. (1883) 260 The Governor hefted the crowns. 1882 Jefferies Bevis III. xvi. 254 With this considerate ease Bevis was to ‘heft’ his gun to the shoulder. 1913 R. W. Service Rhymes of Rolling Stone 40 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. 1932 W. Faulkner Light in August xiv. 308 He was hefting the bench leg. 1960 J. Maclaren-Ross Until Day she Dies ii. 36 ‘Can't see anybody,’ I said, hefting the case. |
2. To lift for the purpose of trying the weight.
| 1816 Pickering Vocab. 104 To heft,..to lift any thing in order to judge of its weight, is not in the dictionaries. 1828 Webster s.v. Heft n., We sometimes hear it used as a verb, as, to heft, to lift for the purpose of feeling or judging of the weight. 1872 O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. xii. (1885) 303, I should like to ‘heft’ it in my own hand. 1894 Blackmore Perlycross 58 He..‘hefted it’ (that is to say, poised it carefully to judge the weight, as one does a letter for the post). |
| fig. 1878 Mrs. Stowe Poganuc P. iii. 24 Come to heft him, tho', he don't weigh much 'longside o' Parson Cushing. |
3. intr. To weigh, have weight.
| 1851 S. Judd Margaret (1871) 241, I remember the great hog up in Dunwich, that hefted nigh twenty score. 1893 C. M. Yonge Treasures in Marshes ii. 11, I do believe it is [gold]. Brass never would heft so much. |
▪ V. heft, v.2 Chiefly Sc.
[prob. a. ON. hefta to bind, fetter, hold back, restrain, f. haft handcuff, fetter; cf. Ger. heften to make fast: see haft v.2 and v.3]
To restrain, retain (milk or urine).
| 1808–25 Jamieson, To heft, to confine nature, to restrain. A cow's milk is said to be heftit, when it is not drawn off for some time... One is said to be heftit, when, in consequence of long retention, the bladder is painfully distended. 1842 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm (1849) 522/2 The impropriety of hefting or holding the milk in cows until the udder is distended. |
▪ VI. heft
var. of haft n.1 and n.2, v.1 and v.3
▪ VII. heft
obs. pa. tense and pple. of heave.