heavy

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Weighing a lot; hard to lift or move.

   This box is too heavy for me to carry alone.

2. 2
   adj

   Greater than usual in amount or number.

   There was heavy traffic on the way home.

3. 3
   adj

   Very strong, powerful, or forceful.

   He gave the door a heavy blow with his fist.

4. 4
   adj

   Needing or showing a lot of effort.

   I could hear his heavy breathing after the climb.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Heavy is an Old English word derived from Old English heave. Heave also gave rise to late Middle English heft, meaning "the weight of someone."

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”). 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 (c…

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