heaving

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of heave

comparative more heaving · superlative most heaving

1. informalCrowded with people.

   At this time it was pissing down and by the time Joe Satriani came on the tent was heaving with people just coming in to keep dry.

   2007 June 25, Jamie, “Hyde Park Calling 2007”, in classic rock magazine readers (Usenet)

   5 more examples

   Kinlochewe was heaving with cyclists and their vehicles on Saturday morning but somehow,^([sic]) the organisers had found space for everyone and the main roads were kept clear.

   2006 July 30, Tim Downie, “Ride Report: Bealach-na-Ba”, in uk.rec.cycling (Usenet)

   The pool was heaving with screaming kids. By contrast the beach was virtually deserted, apart from the one day a cruise ship docked & a group of about 10 people appeared.

   2006 October 26, Krusty, “Krusty's Holiday”, in uk.rec.motorcycles (Usenet)

   It is the opening weekend of the 25 Hours Bikini hotel and, despite being only one day old, the restaurant is fully booked and the bar's heaving.

   2014 April 11, Will Coldwell, “25 Hours Bikini hotel: Berlin's latest hipster hangout”, in The Guardian

   Gem Concannon, 36, from Northwich in Cheshire, said the town was “heaving”, adding: “Hardly anyone was wearing masks or social distancing. It was shocking. I’ve never seen it that busy before.”

   2020 September 20, Josh Halliday, “Health official urges people not to flock to 'heaving' Blackpool”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   "You know what Paddington is like when it's absolutely heaving. There is nowhere for kids. You're holding their hands, you're holding the luggage, you're trying to move the pram, you're working out where to go. It really is quite stressful.

   2022 February 23, Paul Clifton, “A demand for family-friendly trains”, in RAIL, number 951, page 40

2. Of the chest, rising and falling noticeably from exertion, emotion, or laboured breathing.
3. literaryOf the bosom, full, ample, or voluptuous in form, irrespective of movement.

   We also prefer the past, I think, despite the bloodshed and absence of analgesia, because we’re so relentlessly served our own history, from the medieval murk of King & Conqueror to the heaving cleavage of Bridgerton.

   2025 September 15, Emma Beddington, “A heaving Bridgerton cleavage or bloody decapitation? What your favourite era of history says about you”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   1 more example

   And here I might (if I followed the example of most travellers) launch out into a glowing description of the charms of these damsels, the elegant costumes they wore, and the gold and silver ornaments with which they were adorned. The jacket or body of purple gauze would figure well in such a description, allowing the heaving bosom to be seen beneath it, while "sparkling eyes," and "jetty tresses," and "tiny feet" might be thrown in profusely. But, alas!

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 343

plural heavings

1. An occasion on which something heaves or is heaved.

   His throne rocked with subterraneous heavings.

   1893, Thomas De Quincey, The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. II (2 vols)

   2 more examples

   No swellings tell that winds may be Upon some far-off happier sea-- No heavings hint that winds have been On seas less hideously serene."

   1884, Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven

   Then he set the jug down wrong side up, and remained glaring at it fixedly, while his chest rose and fell in deep heavings.

   1895, Owen Wister, The Dragon of Wantley