heft

Meanings

Noun

• Weight.
• Heaviness, the feel of weight; heftiness.
• The act or effort of heaving; violent strain or exertion.
• The greater part or bulk of anything.
• A piece of mountain pasture to which a farm animal has become hefted (accustomed).
• An animal that has become hefted thus.
• Poor condition in sheep caused by mineral deficiency.
• A number of sheets of paper fastened together, as for a notebook.
• A part of a serial publication.

Verb

• To lift up; especially, to lift something heavy.
• To test the weight of something by lifting it.
• Past participle of heave
• To make (a farm animal, especially a flock of sheep) accustomed and attached to an area of mountain pasture.

Related

Similar words

• hoist

Origin

• From Middle English heft, derived from Middle English heven, equivalent to heave + -t. For development, compare English weft from weave, cleft from cleave, theft from thieve, etc.
• From English and Scots dialect, ultimately from Old Norse hefð (compare Old Norse hefða), from Proto-Germanic *habiþō, equivalent to have + -t. Cognate with Scots heft, heff.
• From German Heft.