German

Alternative forms

• H. (abbreviation)

Noun

Heft n ‎(genitive Hefts or Heftes, plural Hefte, diminutive Heftchen n)

1. booklet, cahier to write in
2. notebook
3. notepad, writing pad
4. exercise book
5. haft of a melee weapon

Declension

English

Alternative forms

• haft

Noun

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.‎

Derived terms

• hefty

Translations

Verb

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.

Synonyms

• (to lift up): hoist

Translations

Etymology 2

From German Heft ‎(“notebook”).

Noun

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.

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛft

Noun

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 het heft in handen hier

   She's the one that runs the show here.

Verb

heft

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

Kurdish

Etymology

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

Numeral

heft

1. (cardinal) seven

Scots

Etymology

From Old Norse hefð.

Noun

heft

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

Verb

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.