heavy

comparative heavier · superlative heaviest

1. Having great weight.

   Use the scales to measure how heavy it is.

   4 more examples

   Can you help me carry this? It's really heavy.

   Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.[…]A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   But now, ten years later, after his recent shipwreck, he cannot compete as a runner, though he can outthrow the slighter Phaeacians with the heaviest discus.

   2002, Eva Brann, Homeric Moments, page 48

   In other research, scientists have found that people who kept cereal out in the open were often about 20 pounds heavier than people who kept cereal behind closed doors.

   2015 May 18, Angus Chen, How We Store Food At Home Could Be Linked To How Much We Eat

   1. Heavyset: overweight.

      When he was a child he was rather heavy, but today he is impressively fit.

2. Serious, somber.

   "We're still in an existential-stakes war with the Pa'anuri, and possibly with our own destructive tendencies." ' "Sorry. That was pretty heavy for someone who just woke up." "Oh, I'm fine. Waking up alive has ALWAYS meant spending the day trying not to be dead."

   2020 January 8, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, archived from the original on 13 Feb 2025

3. Not easy to bear; burdensome; oppressive.

   heavy yokes, expenses, undertakings, trials, news, etc.

   3 more examples

   The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 5:6

   The king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make.

   1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]

   Sent hither by my Husband to impart the heavy news.

   1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion

4. UKdatedslangGood.

   This film is heavy.

5. USdatedlate 1960sProfound.

   The Moody Blues are, like, heavy.

6. High, great.

   1998, Stanley George Clayton, ""Menstruation" in Encyclopedia Britannica The ovarian response to gonadotropic hormones may be erratic at first, so that irregular or heavy bleeding sometimes occurs

7. slangArmed.

   Come heavy, or not at all.

8. Loud, distorted, or intense.

   Metal is heavier than rock.

9. Hot and humid.
10. Doing the specified activity more intensely than most other people.

    This car is too heavy on gas.

    2 more examples

    He was a heavy sleeper, a heavy eater and a heavy smoker – certainly not an ideal husband.

    He was described in the theatrical prints as the “veteran Blenkinsop”—“the useful Blenkinsop”—“that old favourite of the public, Blenkinsop”—those parts in the drama, which are called the heavy fathers, were usually assigned to this veteran, who, indeed, acted the heavy father in public, as in private life.

    1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 29, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

11. With eyelids difficult to keep open due to tiredness.

    Watch for the signs of fatigue, including yawning, blinking and heavy eyes.

    2021 December 28, The Road Ahead, Brisbane, page 11, column 3

12. High in fat or protein; difficult to digest.

    Cheese-stuffed sausage is too heavy to eat before exercising.

13. Of great force, power, or intensity; deep or intense.

    it was a heavy storm; a heavy slumber in bed; a heavy punch

    2 more examples

    The surf was not heavy, and there was no undertow, so we made shore easily, effecting an equally easy landing.

    1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC

    [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.

    2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

14. Laden with that which is weighty; encumbered; burdened; bowed down, either with an actual burden, or with grief, pain, disappointment, etc.

    his eyes were heavy with sleep; she was heavy with child

    3 more examples

    The heavy [sorrowing] nobles all in council were.

    1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC

    A light wife doth make a heavy husband.

    c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

    Seating himselfe within a darkesome cave, / (Such places heavy Saturnists doe crave,) / Where yet the gladsome day was never seene […]

    1613, William Browne, Britannia's Pastorals

15. Slow; sluggish; inactive; or lifeless, dull, inanimate, stupid.

    a heavy writer or book

    4 more examples

    a heavy gait, looks, manners, style, etc.

    whilst the heavy ploughman snores

    c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

    a heavy, dull, degenerate mind

    1700, [John] Dryden, “Cymon and Iphigenia, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

    Neither [is] his ear heavy, that it cannot hear.

    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 59:1

16. Impeding motion; cloggy; clayey.

    a heavy road; a heavy soil

    1 more example

    The next day we only made some eight miles, as the road was heavy beyond all belief. It lay through a desert region of country which was ancle-deep ^([sic]) in soda and alkali dust.

    1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 37

17. Not raised or leavened.

    heavy bread

18. Having much body or strength.
19. obsoleteWith child; pregnant.
20. natural sciencesContaining one or more isotopes that are heavier than the normal one.

    heavy water

21. oil industryOf petroleum, having high viscosity.
22. businessOf a market: in which the price of shares is declining.

    The very low prices of brandy, and the continuance of a heavy market for such a length of time, have begun to attract buyers; […]

    1819, The Scots Magazine, volumes 83-84, page 577

    1 more example

    The oil market is heavy, each day bringing along further supplies of shares from people who have not tired of the long-continued decline in the market.

    1922, The Investor's Monthly Manual: A Newspaper for Investors, page 626

23. governmentHeavily-armed.
24. aeronauticsHaving a relatively high takeoff weight and payload.
    1. specificallyaeronauticsHaving a maximum takeoff weight exceeding 300,000 pounds, as almost all widebodies do, generating high wake turbulence.

comparative more heavy · superlative most heavy

1. In a heavy manner; weightily; heavily; gravely.

   Heavy-laden with their sins, time hung heavy

2. colloquialnonstandardTo a great degree; greatly.

   Olive: What was it - booze? Barney: Yeh. Been hitting it pretty heavy.

   1957, Ray Lawler, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Sydney: Fontana Books, published 1974, page 35

3. Indiacolloquialvery

plural heavies · plural heavys

1. slangA villain or bad guy; the one responsible for evil or aggressive acts.

   With his wrinkled, uneven face, the actor always seemed to play the heavy in films.

2. slangA doorman, bouncer or bodyguard.

   A fight started outside the bar but the heavies came out and stopped it.

3. A prominent figure; a "major player".

   A collection of topical themes and love songs, featuring session work by women's music "heavies" Holly Near, Mary Watkins, Linda Tillery, Robin Flower, and others.

   1985 December 21, Nan Donald, “Flat-picking up a Storm”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 23, page 6

4. in pluralslangjournalismA newspaper of the quality press.

   Reviewers in the heavies aim to impress with the depth of their knowledge and appreciation.

   2006, Richard Keeble, The Newspapers Handbook

   1 more example

   The comment may be offered here that the 'heavies' have been the Design Award's principal scorers, both in the overall bronze plaque days and, since, in the Daily/Sunday Class 1.

   1973, Allen Hutt, The changing newspaper, page 151

5. aeronauticsA relatively large multi-engined aircraft.

   I read five heavies, maybe transports or tankers...could be bombers.

   2000, Philip Woods, Shattered Allegiance, page 363

   2 more examples

   In a firm voice he said, “World Wide Six heavy is ready for takeoff.”

   1990, Perry Francis Lafferty, The Downing of Flight Six Heavy, page 85

   A 76 Squadron pilot who later completed a second tour on Mosquitoes said that his colleagues on the light bombers “simply could never understand how awful being on heavies was.”

   2012, Jon E. Lewis, The Mammoth Book of Heroes

6. archaicslangentertainmentA serious theatrical role.

   Payton boasted his range included "leading parts or genteel heavies, character old men, dialect parts, old women and, on occasion, soubrettes and leading ladies"; however, he was most at ease in light comedy roles.

   2008, William L. Slout, Theatre in a Tent, page 28

7. historicalgovernmentA member of the heavy cavalry.

   Cavalry […] is divided into mediums, heavies, and light cavalry. The mediums consist of 13 regiments; the heavies of 2 regiments; and the light of 13.

   1891, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, The Historic Note-book: With an Appendix of Battles, page 153

present singular third person heavies · participle present heavying · participle past heavied · past heavied

1. oftenTo make heavier.

   They piled their goods on the donkey's back, heavying up an already backbreaking load.

2. To sadden.
3. AustraliaNew ZealandinformalTo use power or wealth to exert influence on, e.g., governments or corporations; to pressure.

   The union was well known for the methods it used to heavy many businesses.

   3 more examples

   […]the Prime Minister sought to evade the simple fact that he heavied Mr Reid to get rid of Dr Armstrong.

   1985, Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives Weekly Hansard, Issue 11, Part 1, page 1570

   2001, Finola Moorhead, Darkness More Visible, Spinifex Press, Australia, page 557, But he is on the wrong horse, heavying me. My phone′s tapped. Well, he won′t find anything.

   2005, David Clune, Ken Turner (editors), The Premiers of New South Wales, 1856-2005, Volume 3: 1901-2005, page 421, But the next two days of the Conference also produced some very visible lobbying for the succession and apparent heavying of contenders like Brereton, Anderson and Mulock - much of it caught on television.

comparative more heavy · superlative most heavy

1. Having the heaves.

   a heavy horse