heave hoint.n.
a. A cry of sailors in heaving the anchor up, etc.; also used as the burden of a song. †with heave and how (ho), figurative with force, with might and main (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > voice or vocal sound > cry or exclamation > cry or exclaim [verb (intransitive)] > specific exclamations
ho1377
heave hoa1400
howc1450
whew1765
oh-oh1833
oh1837
yo-heave-ho1857
phew1858
ahem1876
oh-my1893
hooch1896
yah1904
ooh1930
ooh-la-la1950
ooh-ooh1960
a1400 Coer de L. 2522 They rowede hard, and sungge ther too: ‘With heuelow and rumbeloo’.
?1499 J. Skelton Bowge of Courte (de Worde) sig. Aviv Heue & how rombelow row ye bote norman rowe.
a1500 Ortus Vocabulorum Celeuma est clamor nauticus, vel cantus vel heuylaw romylawe [1518 ut heue and howe, rombylow].
a1513 R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) II. f. lxxxiiii Your Lenumans ye haue loste at Bannock is borne. With heue a lowe.
1558 T. Phaer tr. Virgil Seuen First Bks. Eneidos vi. sig. R.iij Heaue and hoaw for ioy they sing.
1591 J. Harington tr. L. Ariosto Orlando Furioso xxxvii. lxxxix. 312 Though they seeme in punishing but slow, Yet pay they home at last, with heaue and how.
1600 T. Nashe Summers Last Will 243 Here enter..3. maids, singing this song, daunsing: Trip and goe, heaue and hoe, Vp and downe, to and fro.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Cor A cor & à cry,..by might and maine, with heaue and hoe; eagerly, vehemently, seriously.
1790 C. Dibdin Coll. Songs 7 To the windlass let us go, With yo heave ho!
1885 C. F. Holder Marvels Animal Life 175 Yells,..snatches of song, and heave-hoys rent the air.
b. Originally U.S. slang. A snub or dismissal.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > going away > causing to go away > [noun] > sending away or dismissing > a dismissal
passport1579
nunc dimittis1594
abscessional1647
heave ho1944
red card1980
1944 D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte (1946) vi. 107 A most obnoxious character..tries to claim the deuce as a sleeper and gets the heave-o from Nathan Detroit.
1952 B. Cerf Good for Laugh (1953) 152 I'll bet that new girl..gave you the heave-ho.
1961 P. G. Wodehouse Service with Smile vii. 127 If I were you, I think I would reconsider this idea of yours of giving Bill Bailey the old heave-ho.
1966 New Yorker 22 Oct. 52 Do we keep him on or give him the heave-ho?
1973 Guardian 20 Jan. 1/5 Mr Heath's prices and incomes package was given the old heave-ho by..the TUC Economic Committee.
Derivatives
heave-ho v. (intransitive) to cry ‘heave ho!’; also v. transitive, to heave or lift with force.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > upward movement > raising > make to go up or cause to rise [verb (transitive)] > lift or take up > lift with force
heave1715
heave-ho1964
1840 R. H. Dana Two Years before Mast xxv. 81 They were heave-hoing, stopping and unstopping, pawling, catting, and fishing, for three hours.
1964 New Yorker 18 Jan. 84 A groaning mass of men heave-ho'd the snow car up the ramp.
1968 Listener 5 Dec. 768 During a rehearsal of Billy Budd, a singer was asked why he was just lolling about in the wings, not heave~hoing with the rest of them.
1971 Guardian Weekly 7 Aug. 17 The [Congolese] women who, apparently 12 months pregnant, nonetheless are constantly hauling and heave-hoing on this packing case of merchandise or that basket full of provisions.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1898; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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int.n.a1400