Definition of "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.

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

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

The king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make.

1599, 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, [Act IV, scene i]

Sent hither by my Husband to impart the heavy news.

1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion

The ovarian response to gonadotropic hormones may be erratic at first, so that irregular or heavy bleeding sometimes occurs

1998, Stanley George Clayton, ""Menstruation" in Encyclopedia Britannica

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. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850

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

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

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.; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I, II, or III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927,

[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

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; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volumes (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857,

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, [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

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, [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, […]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2006, Richard Keeble, The Newspapers Handbook

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

2000, Philip Woods, Shattered Allegiance, page 363

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

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

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

[…] 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

But he is on the wrong horse, heavying me. My phone′s tapped. Well, he won′t find anything.

2001, Finola Moorhead, Darkness More Visible, Spinifex Press, Australia, page 557

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.

2005, David Clune, Ken Turner (editors), The Premiers of New South Wales, 1856-2005, Volume 3: 1901-2005, page 421