1597 W. Shakespeare Richard III v. v. 71 Let me sit heauie on thy soule to morrow. View more context for this quotation

1638 R. Baker tr. J. L. G. de Balzac New Epist. II. 32 I have something, I know not what, lies heavy at my heart.

1721 G. Berkeley Ess. Preventing Ruine Great Brit. 25 This public Calamity that lieth so heavy on the Nation.

c1726 A. Evans Elegy on Vanbrugh Lie heavy on him, earth! for he Laid many heavy loads on thee!

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 287 These burdens did not lie very heavy on the nation.

1728 A. Pope Dunciad i. 66 Heavy harvests nod beneath the snow.

1795 Gentleman's Mag. 65 539/1 Another sharp frost and heavy snow.

1835 Penny Cycl. III. 464/1 The early-sown crops are..in general the heaviest.

1843 Yale Lit. Mag. 8 406 In this patch of ‘heavy timber’.

1853 B. F. Taylor January & June (1871) 252 [The storm] went crashing on, into the heavy timber.

1857 D. Livingstone Missionary Trav. S. Afr. xix. 373 Virgin soil does not give such a heavy crop as an old garden.

1871 P. G. Tait & W. J. Steele Dynamics of Particle (ed. 3) iv. Example 46 A heavy particle is projected from a given point with a given velocity.

a1000 Boeth. Metr. xx. 266 Eorþe is hefigre oðrum gesceaftum.

a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Prov. xxvii. 3 Heuy is the ston, and charjous is the grauel.

c1440 York Myst. xviii. 20 Hevye as leede.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 315/1 Heavy as golde is or any thyng that wayeth moche, massif.

1695 J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth Pref. sig. A5 According to the Order of their Gravity, those which are heaviest lying deepest in the Earth.

1838 T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 608 An oil, deeper coloured..but equally heavy.

1828 N. Webster Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang. Heavy..25. Not raised by leaven or fermentation; not light; clammy; as heavy bread.

1837–42 N. Whittock et al. Compl. Bk. Trades 17 Kneading..is..indispensable, or the dough would be in lumps and the bread heavy.

1859 ‘G. Eliot’ Adam Bede II. ii. xxi. 125 If the bread turned out heavy.

1887 S. Baring-Gould Red Spider II. xxix. 162 The pasty is heavy.

1864 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 17 126 In support of the view that thallium is one of the heavy metals, the following reasons may be given.

1868 J. N. Lockyer Elem. Lessons Astron. iii. 59 Platinum, the heaviest metal.

1903 Jrnl. Physiol. 29 165 Most of the heavy metals when injected directly into the circulation give rise to increased movements of plain muscle throughout the body.

1922 F. W. Aston Isotopes viii. 101 The nucleus of the atom of an ordinary element (not hydrogen)..is very small compared with the atom itself. Its dimensions can be roughly determined by actual experiment in the case of the heavy elements.

1936 Discovery Feb. 36/1 Heavy elements, such as gold, silver, and lead.

1936 R. P. Bell tr. N. J. Bjerrum Inorg. Chem. 213 The metals fall naturally into two groups: the light metals with densities below four, and the heavy metals with densities above seven... The heavy metals have their electrons more firmly bound and are less electropositive than the light metals.

1946 Monthly Notices Royal Astron. Soc. CVI. 357 Material at any point..on the other side of the curve is composed almost entirely of heavy elements, the main mass of the elements in the latter case having atomic weight greater than 50.

1955 Chem. & Engin. News 2 May 1902/2 Karl F. Heumann wonders what is meant by ‘heavy metal’. One authority says it is any metal having a specific gravity greater than 4.0. Another says it is sometimes applied to those of sp. gr. 5.0 or over... Has ‘heavy metal’ ever been officially defined?

1961 Jrnl. Chem. Educ. 38 67/1 The present treatment will be restricted to the main process responsible for the heavy elements, of mass number A greater than 70.

1972 Science 14 Apr. 161 (title) Enrichment of heavy metals and organic compounds in the surface microlayer of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island.

1933 Nature 22 Apr. 590/2 Heavy water freezes when surrounded by melting ice.

1933 Jrnl. Chem. Physics June 344/2 Let us make an estimate of the amount of the heavy hydrogen isotope in ordinary water.

1933 Discovery July 211/1 For the first time in history a chemical element has been divided into two completely different parts. A new ‘heavy’ hydrogen has been separated from the old.

1933 Science 29 Dec. 602/1 In fact, if there were only two waters, two ammonias, and so forth, the names ‘light water’, ‘heavy water’, ‘light ammonia’ and ‘heavy ammonia’ would be very satisfactory indeed.

1934 Discovery Jan. 1/1 There is one part only of heavy hydrogen to 35,000 parts of light hydrogen.

1934 Times Educ. Suppl. 18 Aug. p. i/2 The newly discovered ‘heavy water’ or deuterium oxide in Antarctic snow.

1935 Discovery June 179/2 ‘Heavy water’..is rich in deuterium, the hydrogen isotope of mass 2.

1936 Punch 23 Sept. 337/1 ‘Heavy-water’, the newly-discovered fluid, costs £120 a teaspoonful.

1937 Discovery Oct. 317/1 The value of heavy nitrogen for research in physiological chemistry is inestimable.

1938 Encycl. Brit. Bk. of Year 320/1 ‘Heavy water’ or deuterium oxide is now manufactured commercially and is an article of commerce.

1938 R. W. Lawson tr. G. von Hevesy & F. A. Paneth Man. Radioactivity (ed. 2) xx. 187 The properties of ‘heavy hydrogen’ or ‘deuterium’..differ..strongly from those of the much more abundant ordinary hydrogen.

1941 in M. Gowing Brit. & Atomic Energy 1939–45 (1964) App. ii. 395 We know that Germany has taken a great deal of trouble to secure supplies of the substance known as heavy water.

1945 H. D. Smyth Gen. Acct. Devel. Atomic Energy Mil. Purposes i. 11 A frequently used ‘beam’ source of neutrons results from accelerated deuterons impinging on ‘heavy water’ ice.

1946 Electronic Engin. 18 142 The deuteron..which is the nucleus of heavy hydrogen, or deuterium.

1947 J. G. Crowther & R. Whiddington Sci. at War 145 The slow neutrons produced by the uranium and heavy-water system would transmute many uranium atoms into the new element plutonium.

1955 Ann. Reg. 1954 393 Dimple (deuterium moderated pile, low energy) was Britain's first heavy water reactor.

1956 Nature 4 Feb. 205/2 Three enriched-uranium heavy-water-moderated..reactors are under construction.

1958 Listener 28 Aug. 294/2 Producing heavy water from electricity from the proposed Aswan High Dam.

1964 M. Gowing Brit. & Atomic Energy 1939–45 ii. 73 Meanwhile doubts grew about the wisdom of pressing the Americans too hard about the heavy water project.

1617 F. Moryson Itinerary iii. 56 They have not heavy luggage.

1617 F. Moryson Itinerary iii. 95 They have a race of heavy Horses.

1883 B. M. Croker Pretty Miss Neville (1884) xiii. 110 Your heavy baggage—is it all right?

1887 Daily News 2 May 2/7 In heavy woollens..there is a little more doing.

1895 Daily News 3 Jan. 5/3 Precedence is as usual given to the exhibition of heavy horses, colloquially known as ‘shires’.

1888 Literary World 7 Sept. 179/1 The father became a curate in the Heavy Woollen District of Yorkshire.

1894 Daily News 19 Mar. 3/7 Those engaged in the heavy steel trades.

1896 Westm. Gaz. 9 July 6/1 The passenger lines have secured gains on increases a year ago, but on some of the ‘heavy’ lines less satisfactory results are shown.

1932 Times 5 Jan. 11/2 The Central Committee of the Communist Party has decided to reorganize the Union Supreme Economic Council, which is to be styled Commissariat of Heavy Industries.

1938 Archit. Rev. 83 117/2 The majority of ‘heavy’ industries are of the latter type.

1938 Times 17 Feb. 16/1 The comparatively high price of iron and steel in Japan (a result of the artificial character of heavy-industrial growth in a country with insufficient ore and unsuitable coal).

1944 J. S. Huxley On Living in Revol. i. iii. 6 The deliberate encouragement of heavy industry under a Five Year Plan, at the expense of all other kinds of enterprise which would have flourished in a laisser-faire economy, is the most clear-cut example.

1957 L. F. R. Williams State of Israel 44 The raw materials required by her expanding heavy and light industries.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Artillery There was no attacking such a Place for want of heavy Artillery.

1813 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1838) X. 479 I have not by me the state of the heavy ordnance and stores which were sent.

1828 N. Webster Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang. (at cited word) Heavy metal, in military affairs, signifies large guns, carrying balls of a large size, or it is applied to large balls themselves.

1846 H. H. Wilson Hist. Brit. India 1805–35 II. i. 24 Heavy guns were brought up..and preparations were made to carry the fort by storm.

1889 Cent. Dict. at Artillery Heavy Artillery [U.S.], all artillery not formed into batteries or equipped for field evolutions.

1917 ‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 206 A line of narrow-nosed buses, with heavy bombs fitted under the lower planes, ready to leave for their objective.

1882 Ogilvie's Imperial Dict. (new ed.) (at cited word) Heavy metal, guns or shot of large size; hence, fig. ability, mental or bodily; power, influence; as, he is a man of heavy metal; also, a person or persons of great ability or power, mental or bodily; used generally of one who is or is to be another's opponent in any contest; as, we had to do with heavy metal. (Colloq.)

1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry i. f. 22^v If you breake vp newe ground, yf it be riche, heauie, and prepared for seede, it suffiseth to plowe it once.

1710 S. Sewall Diary 1 Dec. (1973) II. 648 The ways were heavy.

1720 D. Defoe Life Capt. Singleton 112 The Sand was no where so deep and heavy.

1826 R. Whately Elements Logic iii. 147 Universally what are called heavy soils are specifically the lightest.

1837 Boston (Lincs.) Herald 3 Jan. 2 Scarcely any of the mail-coaches arrived in London before half-past 8 o'clock, owing to the heavy state of the roads.

a1862 H. D. Thoreau Cape Cod (1865) iii. 27 That we should find it very ‘heavy’ walking in the sand.

1884 James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Ann. ii. i. 44 The ground was so heavy from recent rains.

1886 H. G. Hutchinson Hints on Golf 39 When lying ‘heavy’..bear in mind that it is better to hit the ball with the iron than to miss it with a spoon.

c1000 Laws Eccl. Inst. xxvii, in B. Thorpe Anc. Laws Eng. (1840) II. 424 Hwa..on swa hefige scylde gehreose.

c1050 Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia (1885) 8 320 Wið hefigum synnum.

a1123 Anglo-Saxon Chron. anno 1106 Ðises geares eac wæron swiðe hefige and sinlice gewinn betwux þam Casere..and his sunu.

c1175 Lamb. Hom. 51 Ulcne mon..þet lið in heuie sunne.

c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 10028 Full off hefiȝ dwilde.

1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie i. i. 48 A number of heauie preiudices deepely rooted in the hearts of men.

1596 J. Dalrymple tr. J. Leslie Hist. Scotl. (1888) I. 196 (margin) The hayuie hatred and Jnuie of the Pechtes towarde the Scottis.

1603 R. Knolles Gen. Hist. Turkes 827 A dead march sounded, and heauie silence commaunded to be kept through all the campe.

1801 J. Strutt Glig-gamena Angel-ðeod ii. i. 50 In the sixteenth century we meet with heavy complaints respecting the disuse of the long~bow.

1820 P. B. Shelley Œdipus Tyrannus i. 25 The heaviest sin on this side of the Alps!

1861 C. Dickens Let. 1 Feb. (1997) IX. 381 You have read in the papers of our heavy English frost.

1952 M. R. Rinehart Swimming Pool xii. 111 He has a sort of heavy date here with a girl called Janey.

1959 ‘M. Neville’ Sweet Night for Murder vii. 76 Duncan was making a very heavy pass at Cathy.

1960 ‘M. Caine’ S Man 126 What is called ‘heavy petting’ in which frank exploration of each other's bodies is permitted.

1968 M. Richler Cocksure xviii. 111 His thirteen-year-old daughter was the only girl in the fifth form to stop at..heavy petting.

1972 Daily Tel. 29 Jan. 2/6 Heavy petting between boys and girls is not discouraged and intercourse is described in some detail.

1582 R. Stanyhurst tr. Virgil First Foure Bookes Æneis iii. 61 Thee welken is heauye.

1596 Bp. W. Barlow tr. L. Lavater Three Christian Serm. Ded. 82 Who so obserued our heauie heauens.

1876 ‘Mrs. Alexander’ Her Dearest Foe I. 304 A mild, heavy day.

1915 ‘I. Hay’ First Hundred Thousand i. xiii. §2 The feckless and muddle-headed, making heavy weather of the simplest tasks.

1955 Times 21 July 8/5 The Geneva conference ran into heavy weather this morning, but made some ground later.

1957 Listener 24 Oct. 664/1 He makes rather heavy weather of the difference.

1960 V. Gielgud To Bed at Noon i. xii. 92 Aren't you making rather heavy weather out of nothing?

1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie ii. vi. 65 To the lowest and most base because it seemed to fall downe rather then to rise vp, they gaue the name of the heauy accent.

1893 J. Lawrence Chapters Allit. Verse 46 Verses with double alliteration are as a rule heavier than those with single.

1948 Mod. Philol. 46 81 These heavy and extra-heavy verses, are the exceptions.

1958 A. J. Bliss Metre of Beowulf 8 There are also many verses which contain three stressed elements instead of the normal two: blæd | wide | sprang 18 b... All verses of this kind are here termed ‘heavy’ verses.

a1400–50 Alexander 5572 With heuy hedis and hoge as horses it were.

a1538 T. Starkey Dial. Pole & Lupset (1989) 54 Of them..we have over many wych al togyddur make our polytyke body unweldy & hevy & as hyt were to be grevyd wyth grosse humorys.

a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iii. iii. 43 If that surly spirit melancholy Had bak'd thy bloud, and made it heauy, thicke. View more context for this quotation

1674 N. Cox Gentleman's Recreation ii. 130 More creese than the Lanner, and more heavy and sluggish in her flight.

a1700 J. Dryden tr. Ovid Pythagorean Philos. in Wks. (1808) XII. 221 His heels too heavy, and his head too light.

1808 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1837) IV. 45 I understand that some of the transports you have with you are heavy sailers.

1844 E. B. Browning Brown Rosary ii. 77 He flapped his heavy wing all brokenly and weak.

1962 Which? Car Suppl. Oct. 117/1 The Riley 4/72's steering was somewhat heavy and imprecise.

1962 Which? Car Suppl. Oct. 119/2 The Ford Taunus foot brake was not too heavy at 30 mph but needed a great deal of pressure for gentle stops at 60 mph.

1600 W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream v. i. 361 The heauie gate of night. View more context for this quotation

a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iv. i. 47 Still and anon cheer'd vp the heauy time. View more context for this quotation

1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding To Rdr. sig. A3 The diversion of some of my idle and heavy Hours.

1816 Ld. Byron Parisina xx, in Siege of Corinth 88 Sleepless nights and heavy days.

1702 G. Farquhar Inconstant v. iii. 77 My time lyes heavy on my hands.

1794 Abbé Mann in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eminent Literary Men (1843) (Camden) 444 My time does not hang heavy on my hands.

1842 Ld. Tennyson Lady Clara Vere de Vere in Poems (new ed.) I. 158 If Time be heavy on your hands, Are there no beggars at your gate, Nor any poor about your lands?

1831 Lincoln Herald 30 Sept. 1 The oat trade is heavy, and this grain may be quoted full 1s. per qr. under our last quotation.

1843 Times 20 May 7/3 The English securities were heavy again to-day.

1935 Economist 2 Feb. 261/2 Japanese bonds were heavy.

1962 S. Strand Marketing Dict. 339 Heavy market, a market of declining prices.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 533 Polygnotus the Thasian..represented much variety of countenance, far different from the rigorous and heauy looke of the visage beforetime.

1638 F. Junius Painting of Ancients 61 Without such a force of phantasie the whole labour of their braines will be but a heavie, dull, and life-lesse piece of worke.

a1745 J. Swift Remarks upon Bk. in Wks. (1762) X. 95 It may still be a Wonder how so heavy a Book..should survive to three Editions.

1846 T. Wright Ess. Middle Ages II. xix. 257 The longer poems..of the first half of the fourteenth century are dull and heavy.

1863 C. C. Clarke Shakespeare-characters xv. 383 This play..has been denominated a ‘heavy one’, which means that it is not distinguished by various and rapid action, or abrupt and startling incident.

1875 A. Trollope Way we live Now I. xxx. 187 Old Splinter,..who had written for the heavy quarterlies any time this last forty years, professed that he saw through the article.

1967 Listener 7 Dec. 743/1 The editors of the heavy dailies.

1937 B. Goodman This Thing called Swing 9 Mugging heavy: soft swing with a heavy beat.

1940 Swing July 17 Very fast semi-boogie blues in Gabriel with nasty, heavy off-beat drumming.

1958 R. P. Blesh & H. Janis They all played Ragtime vi. 117 Victory Rag, a ‘heavy’ number of great difficulty, went on the market in 1921.

1959 ‘F. Newton’ Jazz Scene xiv. 261 Jazz is not simply an ordinary music, light or heavy.

1969 Rolling Stone 28 June 38/4 Bass player wanted for heavy blues-rock band.

1969 It 4 July 10/2 The Rolling Stones..are well supported by such swingin' outfits as..the very heavy Third Ear Band.

1970 Time 17 Aug. 32 Marcuse is heavy stuff.

1971 It 2 June 2/1 The Bournemouth drug squad (reputed to be one of the heaviest squads in the country).

1972 Last Whole Earth Catal. (Portola Inst.) 30/1 Not heavy stuff about what is terrible or what should happen, but how to remake life and stay alive in the process.

1972 Southerly 32 101 We talk about this and that and where's the heavy dope scene now.

1964 W. S. Burroughs Nova Express 66 At this point we got a real break in the form of a defector from The Nova Mob: Uranian Willy The Heavy Metal Kid.

1968 ‘M. Bonfire’ Born to be Wild (sheet music) 2 I like smoke and lightning, Heavy metal thunder.]

1973 Crawdaddy Nov. 81/2 They find no comfort in glitter or Heavy Metal – Black Sabbath, Black Oak Arkansas and their ilk.

1975 R. Carr & T. Tyler Beatles 76 By far the best of the four [songs] was Lennon's heavy-metal ‘Hey, Bulldog’.

1976 New Musical Express 17 Apr. 14/5 The superb ‘Action’..easily the strongest piece of commercialized heavy-metal to appear throughout 1975.

1977 Rolling Stone 13 Jan. 5/2 Heavy metal kings Black Sabbath inspire some of the most rabid followers in all of rock fandom.

1980 Daily Mirror 10 Apr. 12/2 The names of Heavy Metal groups like Deep Purple and Motorhead are inscribed on the back of his leather jacket.

1985 Sounds 27 July 29/4 It's a strange and dangerous music, this heavy metal.

1986 Daily News (N.Y.) 23 May 36/3 It's not Sergio Valente Queens, it's heavy metal, but very polite. They wear stiletto heels and all that hair.

1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park I. xv. 301 Anhalt is a heavy part. View more context for this quotation

1823 Drama IV. 209 Mr. Hillington takes the heavy line of business.

1827 B. Disraeli Vivian Grey III. v. xii. 228 The regular dramatic performance was thought too heavy a business for the evening.

a1828 J. Bernard Retrospections of Stage (1830) I. 13 The Company consisted of a heavy man, who played the tyrants in tragedy.

1833 R. Dyer Nine Years Actor's Life 237 This gentleman possesses natural requisite and acquired talents of the first order in heavy tragedy.

1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby xxii. 211 I played the heavy children when I was eighteen months old.

1858 H. J. Byron Maid & Magpie 35 Such a heavy villin.

1860 G. Vandenhoff Dramatic Reminisc. 176 There was no heavy lady for the Emilias and Lady Macbeths.

1868 A. Helps Realmah I. viii. 285 As the heavy villain at the Surrey Theatre would say.

1870 T. A. Brown Hist. Amer. Stage 54/1 In California she played all lines of business, from walking ladies to heavy, and juvenile leading.

1884 G. Moore Mummer's Wife (1887) 126 He had been playing heavy leads in Shakesperian revivals.

1885 W. C. Day Behind Footlights 113 Practising attitudes before the cheval glass we have the heavy gentleman, chronic villain of the footlights.

1901 C. Morris Life on Stage 40 Then came the leading lady, the first old woman (who was sometimes the heavy woman).

1909 J. R. Ware Passing Eng. Victorian Era 151/2 Heavy merchant, man who plays the villain.

1941 Picturegoer 26 July 6/1 John [Barrymore] started off in heavy drama.

1849 W. M. Thackeray Pendennis (1850) I. xxix. 281 Those parts in the drama, which we called the heavy fathers.

1853 ‘C. Bede’ Adventures Mr. Verdant Green v. 42 He took an affectionate farewell of his son, somewhat after the manner of the ‘heavy fathers’ of the stage.

1858 H. J. Byron Maid & Magpie 4 A Fine Specimen of the good old Heavy Father of Melodrama.

1864 H. Morley Jrnl. (1866) 339 A heavy father in broad farce.

1898 H. R. Haggard Dr. Therne iii Sir John..received me in his best ‘heavy-father’ manner.

1931 Daily Express 31 Jan. 15/2 The heavy uncle attitude.

1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 13 Aug. 613/4 The Venetian Pantalone becomes the Atellane ‘heavy father’ Pappus.

1956 ‘M. Westmacott’ Burden ii. iii. 83 Really, Laura dear, you might be at least fifty. A heavy Victorian father rather than a sister.

c825 Vesp. Psalter liv. 4 [lv. 3] Onhældon in mec unrehtwisnisse and in eorre hefie werun me.

c1000 Ags. Ps. (1835) liv. [lv.] 3 Wurdon me þa on yrre yfele and hefige.

c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Luke xviii. 5 Netheles for this widowe is heuy, or diseseful, to me, I schal venge hir.

1388 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) Luke xi. 7 Nyle thou be heuy to me.

1452 in Paston Lett. I. Introd. 72 I..am informed that the King, my sovereign lord, is my heavy lord, greatly displeased with me.

1476 J. Paston in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) I. 491 It is demyd þat my lady wolde herafftre be the rather myn hevy lady for þat delyng.

c1540 (?a1400) Destr. Troy 12320 Eneas with anger was angardly heuy With Antenor the traytor.

1579–80 T. North tr. Plutarch Lives (1676) 902 Above all others Fabius Maximus was his heavy Enemy.

1628 T. Hobbes tr. Thucydides Peloponnesian War (1822) 38 You would have been no less heavy to the confederates than we.

1702 J. Logan in Mem. Hist. Soc. Pennsylvania (1870) IX. 225 Who groan to find their deliverer prove so heavy.

?1518 A. Barclay tr. D. Mancinus Myrrour Good Maners sig. Giii If this ioconde parsone, wolde after his vsage And counterfayt in chere, an heuy father sage.

1554 in J. Strype Eccl. Memorials (1721) III. xxiii. 193 Sir, I perceive that thou art my heavy friend.

1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. xlii. xiv. 1124 He..was an heavier friend unto Asia than Antiochus had bene.

1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. ix. xx. 728/2 Some..think him to haue been an heauy Father to the common wealth.

1621 J. Molle tr. P. Camerarius Liuing Libr. i. iii. 8 This woman while she liued was an heauie friend of mine.

1926 J. Black You can't Win xx. 302 It was the kind of safe that discouraged the ‘heavy man’ (safe breaker).

1963 R. I. McDavid & D. W. Maurer Mencken's Amer. Lang. (new ed.) 730 Heavy man, one transporting narcotics.

a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 2565 For al ðat swinc heui & sor.

c1400 ( G. Chaucer Treat. Astrolabe (Cambr. Dd.3.53) (1872) Prol. 2 Curio[u]s enditing & hard sentence Is ful heuy atones for swich a child to lerne.

1587 R. Holinshed et al. Hist. Scotl. (new ed.) 365/2 in Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) II Certeine factious persons did beat into their eares, how heauie a iournie that would be vnto them.

1611 Bible (King James) Exod. xviii. 18 This thing is too heauy for thee; thou art not able to performe it thy selfe alone. View more context for this quotation

1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 537 The work, he said, was heavy; but it must be done.

1886 J. Ruskin Præterita II. v. 170 The day had been a heavy one.

1914 Engineering 4 Dec. 670/2 (caption) Heavy-Duty Drilling-Machine.

1935 Discovery July 202/1 Fireproof materials can be substituted for practically every form of heavy duty cloth.

1958 Listener 20 Nov. 839/3 The heavy-duty rubber tyre.

1964 Eng. Stud. 45 426 Special attention has been given to ‘heavy-duty’ words such as have.

1969 Computers & Humanities 3 137 A stand-alone device which consists of a magnetic tape unit, keyboard, and heavy-duty selectric typewriter.

c1374 G. Chaucer Compl. Mars 12 The glad nyght ys worthe an heuy morowe.

1490 W. Caxton tr. Foure Sonnes of Aymon (1885) xxii. 492 Your departyng is so hevy to me that I trowe I shall deye for sorow.

c1560 Hunting Cheviot in F. J. Child Eng. & Sc. Pop. Ballads (1889) III. vi. 308 It was a hevy syght to se.

1569 R. Grafton Chron. II. 626 Where he without great solempnitie kept a heauie Christmasse.

1600 P. Holland tr. Florus Breviaries lv, in tr. Livy Rom. Hist. 1241 These proved in effect to be unfortunate and heavie presages [L. auspicia tristia] unto Mancinus.

1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 246 This was a heavy Piece of News to my Nephew.

1827 T. Carlyle State Germ. Lit. in Edinb. Rev. Oct. 315 To the great body of mankind this were heavy news.

1577 G. Gascoigne Arraignm. of Lover in Brit. Bibl. (1810) I. 76 Thou must go hence to Heavy Hill; And there be hang'd all but the head.

1680 J. Dryden Kind Keeper iv. i. 38 I saw you follow him up the heavy Hill to Tyburn.

c1330 R. Mannyng Chron. (1810) 18 He felt him heuy & ferly seke.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 12625 Wit heui hert and druppand chere.

c1450 (c1400) Sowdon of Babylon (1881) l. 400 Tho sorowede alle the Citesyns And were full hevy than.

?c1450 Life St. Cuthbert (1891) l. 7369 Þe bischop semed to be heuy, þe kirke was left sa unsemely.

1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. EE^v Consyderyng some persones to be iocunde and mery, some sadde and heuy.

1634 S. Rutherford Lett. (1863) I. 113 Her husband is absent and I think she will be heavy.

1725 A. Pope tr. Homer Odyssey II. ix. 117 With heavy hearts we labour thro' the tyde, To coasts unknown, and oceans yet untry'd.

1859 Ld. Tennyson Elaine in Idylls of King 214 For this most gentle maiden's death Right heavy am I.

1863 F. A. Kemble Jrnl. Resid. Georgian Plantation 34 With a heart heavy enough.

?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 254 Heui murnung.

c1275 XI Pains of Hell 170 in Old Eng. Misc. 216 Poule he weppid with heue chere.

14.. T. Hoccleve Min. Poems (1892) 67 I walkid..Besyde a groue in an heuy musynge.

1569 R. Grafton Chron. II. 217 Then answered he with heavie chere: alas, alas, am not I here in prison, & at your awne will?

1603 R. Knolles Gen. Hist. Turkes 82 With flouds of teares abundantly running downe their heauie countenances.

1827 R. Pollok Course of Time I. ii. 43 Who farther sings, must change the pleasant lyre To heavy notes of wo.