heavy
/ˈhɛv.i/ adjective, adverb, noun, verb
Forms heavier heaviest heavies heavys heavying heavied
- adjective (of any physical thing) Having great weight. “Can you help me carry this? It's really heavy.”
- adjective (of a person) Heavyset: overweight. “When he was a child he was rather heavy, but today he is impressively fit.”
- adjective (of a topic) Serious, somber.
- adjective Not easy to bear; burdensome; oppressive. “heavy yokes, expenses, undertakings, trials, news, etc.”
- adjective (UK, slang, dated) Good. “This film is heavy.”
- adjective (dated, late 1960s, 1970s, US) Profound. “The Moody Blues are, like, heavy.”
- adjective (of a rate of flow) High, great.
- adjective (slang) Armed. “Come heavy, or not at all.”
- adverb In a heavy manner; weightily; heavily; gravely.
- adverb (colloquial, nonstandard) To a great degree; greatly.
- adverb (India, colloquial) very
- noun (slang) 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.”
- noun (slang) A doorman, bouncer or bodyguard. “A fight started outside the bar but the heavies came out and stopped it.”
- noun A prominent figure; a "major player".
- noun (journalism, slang, chiefly in the plural) A newspaper of the quality press.
- noun (aviation) A relatively large multi-engined aircraft.
- noun (theater, archaic, slang) A serious theatrical role.
- noun (military, historical) A member of the heavy cavalry.
- verb (often with "up") To make heavier. “They piled their goods on the donkey's back, heavying up an already backbreaking load.”
- verb To sadden.
Synonyms
sweer swear fleshy overweight clayey cloggy lowering sullen threatening dense impenetrable big sonorous intemperate hard grave grievous weighty lumbering ponderous weighed down labored laboured arduous backbreaking grueling gruelling laborious operose punishing
Antonyms
Etymology
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 *kap- (“to take, grasp, hold”). Equivalent to heave + -y. Related to have.
Cognate with Scots hevy, havy, heavy (“heavy”), Saterland Frisian heeuwich, häwich (“violent, angry”), West Frisian hevich (“violent”), Dutch hevig (“violent, severe, intense, acute”), German Low German hevig (“violent, fierce, intense, angry”), German hebig (compare heftig (“fierce, severe, intense, violent, heavy”)), Icelandic höfugur (“heavy, weighty, important”), Latin capāx (“large, wide, roomy, spacious, capacious, capable, apt”).
Compare typologically Russian объёмный (obʺjómnyj), ёмкий (jómkij) (akin to име́ть (imétʹ), взять (vzjatʹ)).
From heave + -y.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Having the heaves.
- adjective Heaved or lifted with labor; not light; weighty; ponderous; as, a heavy stone; hence, sometimes, large in extent, quantity, or effects; as, a heavy fall of rain or snow; a heavy failure; heavy business transactions, etc.; often implying strength; as, a heavy barrier; also, difficult to move; as, a heavy draught.
- adjective Not easy to bear; burdensome; oppressive; hard to endure or accomplish; hence, grievous, afflictive; as, heavy yokes, expenses, undertakings, trials, news, etc. The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod. 1 Sam. v. 6.
- , adv. Heavily; --sometimes used in composition; as, heavy-laden.
Etymology [OE. hevi, AS. hefig, fr. hebban to lift, heave; akin to OHG. hebig, hevig, Icel. höfigr, höfugr. See Heave.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “heavy”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details