noun · countable / uncountable · rare

heft

heft · hefts

тяжесть

Schwere

The feel of the weight of somethingThe feel of the weight of something; heaviness.

ⓘ

/hɛft/

» What is the degree of heft?

Meaning

11 senses

(countable, uncountable)The feel of the weight of something; heaviness.
A high quality hammer should have good balance and heft.
Schwere
тя́жестьtjážestʹ
(US, countable, dialectal, uncountable)The force exerted by an object due to gravitation; weight.
Gewicht
весves
(countable, figuratively, uncountable)Graveness, seriousness; gravity.
(countable, figuratively, uncountable)Importance, influence; weight.
(US, countable, dated, informal, uncountable)The greater part of something; the bulk, the mass.
the property of being large in mass
(UK, countable, dialectal, uncountable)An act of lifting; a lift.
(Northern England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal)A piece of pastureland which farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) have become accustomed to.
(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.
(Northern England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal)A number of sheets of paper fastened together, as to form a book or a notebook.
(Northern England, Scotland, UK, US, dialectal, informal)A part of a serial publication; a fascicle, an issue, a number.
(countable, obsolete, uncountable)An act of heaving (lifting with difficulty); an instance of violent exertion or straining.

Examples

4 sentences

What is the degree of heft?
CC BY · Tatoeba · Eccles17 · C2Open on Tatoeba Report a problem
The heft of the titanium cube was unmatched.
CC BY · Tatoeba · User82312 · C2Open on Tatoeba Report a problem
America uses its economic heft to coerce rivals and allies.
CC BY · Tatoeba · rul · C2Open on Tatoeba Report a problem
His argument lacks heft.
CC BY · Tatoeba · ddnktr · C2Open on Tatoeba Report a problem

Translations

5 languages

Русский

By meaning 2

feel of the weight of something — see also heaviness:

force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight:

Deutsch

By meaning 2

feel of the weight of something — see also heaviness:

force exerted by an object due to gravitation — see also weight:

Origin

The noun is derived from Late Middle English heft (“heaviness; something heavy, a weight”)

The noun is derived from Late Middle English heft (“heaviness; something heavy, a weight”), from heven (“to lift, raise”) + -th (suffix denoting a condition, quality, state of being, etc., forming nouns), by analogy with the development of weft from weven (modern English weave), etc. (also compare words like cleft from cleave, and theft from thieve, where the development occurred in Old English or earlier languages). The English word is analysable as heave + -t (suffix forming nouns from verbs).

The noun is borrowed from Scots heft, haft (“pasture which sheep are familiar with; attachment of sheep to a pasture; number of sheep grazing on such a pasture; (obsolete) place of residence; situation”), probably from Old Norse hefð (“occupation; possession; prescriptive right”), from hafa (“to have; to keep, retain”), from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to have; to hold”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-, *keh₂p- (“to hold; to seize”).

Borrowed from German Heft (“issue of a serial publication, number; magazine; notebook; notepad”), a back-formation from heften (“to fasten”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haftijaną (“to bind; to secure”): see further at etymology 4.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source