Heft \Heft\, n. Same as {Haft}, n. [Obs.] --Waller.
Heft \Heft\, n. [From {Heave}: cf. hefe weight. Cf. {Haft}.] 1. The act or effort of heaving; violent strain or exertion. [Obs.]
He craks his gorge, his sides, With violent hefts. --Shak.
2. Weight; ponderousness. [Colloq.]
A man of his age and heft. --T. Hughes.
3. The greater part or bulk of anything; as, the heft of the crop was spoiled. [Colloq. U. S.] --J. Pickering.
Heft \Heft\, n.; G. pl. {Hefte}. [G.] A number of sheets of paper fastened together, as for a notebook; also, a part of a serial publication.
The size of ``hefts'' will depend on the material requiring attention, and the annual volume is to cost about 15 marks. --The Nation. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
Heft \Heft\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Hefted} ({Heft}, obs.); p. pr. & vb. n. {Hefting}.] 1. To heave up; to raise aloft.
Inflamed with wrath, his raging blade he heft. --Spenser.
2. To prove or try the weight of by raising. [Colloq.]
Heft \Heft\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Hefted} ({Heft}, obs.); p. pr. & vb. n. {Hefting}.] 1. To heave up; to raise aloft.
Inflamed with wrath, his raging blade he heft. --Spenser.
2. To prove or try the weight of by raising. [Colloq.]
The street echoes with gunfire as tribesmen heft a prospective purchase, swing it to their shoulders and send a stream of bullets into the hills that loom over Darra.
Rather than ruminate about politics, he prefers to contemplate the heft of a cabbage or the sweetness of a lettuce, raising his voice to be heard over the locusts' buzz.
Gelb managed to heft the chair down a flight of stairs and to the lawn outside, but then "I just couldn't move it anymore." "He put my hand behind my back in that typical kind of hammerlock," Gelb recalled last week in an interview.
Critics said the proposed funding change wouldn't be popular on Capitol Hill, where the highway lobby has substantial heft.
Next time, maybe he can heft a chicken.
While Chrysler Corp., Ford Motor Co., and General Motors Corp. each maintains a large Washington office staffed with professional lobbyists, the companies added extra heft with outside lawyers and consultants.