heft

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• IPA^(key): /hɛft/
• Rhymes: -ɛft

From Old Norse hefð.

• haft

heft (countable and uncountable, plural hefts)

1. (uncountable) Weight.
   • T. Hughes

     a man of his age and heft

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.

2. Heaviness, the feel of weight.

   A high quality hammer should have good balance and heft.

   • 2014 September 7, Natalie Angier, “The Moon comes around again [print version: Revisiting a moon that still has secrets to reveal: Supermoon revives interest in its violent origins and hidden face, International New York Times, 10 September 2014, p. 8]”, in The New York Times‎:

     Unlike most moons of the solar system, ours has the heft, the gravitational gravitas, to pull itself into a sphere.

3. (Northern England) A piece of mountain pasture to which a farm animal has become hefted (accustomed).
4. An animal that has become hefted thus.
5. (West of Ireland) Poor condition in sheep caused by mineral deficiency.
6. The act or effort of heaving; violent strain or exertion.
   • William Shakespeare

     He cracks his gorge, his sides, / With violent hefts.

7. (US, dated, colloquial) The greater part or bulk of anything.
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of J. Pickering to this entry?)

   The heft of the crop was spoiled.

• hefty

heft (third-person singular simple present hefts, present participle hefting, simple past and past participle hefted)

1. (transitive) To lift up; especially, to lift something heavy.

   He hefted the sack of concrete into the truck.

2. (transitive) To test the weight of something by lifting it.
3. (transitive, Northern England and Scotland) (of a farm animal, especially a flock of sheep) To become accustomed and attached to an area of mountain pasture.
4. (obsolete) past participle of to heave.

• (to lift up): hoist

From German Heft (“notebook”).

heft (plural hefts)

1. A number of sheets of paper fastened together, as for a notebook.
2. A part of a serial publication.
   • The Nation

     The size of hefts will depend on the material requiring attention, and the annual volume is to cost about 15 marks.

• IPA^(key): /ɦɛft/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: heft
• Rhymes: -ɛft

From Middle Dutch hefte. Forms with -cht- were dominant in Middle Dutch. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

heft n (plural heften, diminutive heftje n)

1. handle of a knife or other tool, haft, hilt
2. (metaphor, used absolutely: het heft) control, charge

   Zij heeft hier het heft in handen. ― She runs the show here.

   Synonyms: gevest, handgreep

• hecht

• het heft in eigen handen nemen

See the etymology of the main entry.

heft

1. second- and third-person singular present indicative of heffen
2. (archaic) plural imperative of heffen

From Proto-Iranian [Term?], from Proto-Indo-Iranian [Term?], from Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥. Compare Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬞𐬙𐬀‎ (hapta), Persian هفت‎ (haft), Ossetian авд (avd), Pashto اووه‎ (uwə).

heft

1. (cardinal) seven

From Old Norse hefð.

heft

1. A piece of mountain pasture to which a farm animal has become hefted.
2. An animal that has become hefted thus.

heft (third-person singular present hefts, present participle heftin, past heftit, past participle heftit)

1. (transitive) The process by which a farm animal becomes accustomed to an area of mountain pasture.