<B>heather, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a low evergreen shrub with stalks of small, purple or pink, bell-shaped flowers, covering many heaths of Scotland and northern England; ling; heath. Heather belongs to the heath family. <DD><B> 2. </B>any one of various heaths common in Devonshire, Cornwall, and other parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. </DL>
<A NAME="heatherbell">
<B>heather bell,</B> <B>=heath bell.</B></DL>
<A NAME="heathery">
<B>heathery, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of or like heather. <DD><B> 2. </B>covered with or full of heather. </DL>
<A NAME="heathfamily">
<B>heath family,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a widely distributed group of shrubs or subshrubs, often having evergreen leaves. The family includes the heath, azalea, rhododendron, huckleberry, blueberry, wintergreen, and arbutus. </DL>
<A NAME="heathhen">
<B>heath hen,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an extinct North American grouse closely related to the prairie chicken. <DD><B> 2. </B>a female black grouse. </DL>
<A NAME="heathland">
<B>heathland, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) land covered with heath; heath; moor. </DL>
<A NAME="heathy">
<B>heathy, </B>adjective, <B>heathier,</B> <B>heathiest.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of or having to do with a heath. <DD><B> 2. </B>like a heath. <DD><B> 3. </B>covered with or full of heath. <BR> <I>Ex. They walked for a couple of miles over heathy pasture land, for the most part in silence (New Yorker).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B><B>=heathery.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="heatingelement">
<B>heating element,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the part of an electrical device that provides heat, such as the set of exposed wires in a toaster. </DL>
<A NAME="heatingpad">
<B>heating pad,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a pad heated on the same principle as an electric blanket, suitable for warming one part of the body. </DL>
<A NAME="heatisland">
<B>heat island,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an area of higher temperature averages than the surrounding area. <BR> <I>Ex. Cities form heat islands, a phenomenon reported as long ago as 1833 (Joseph Wallace).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="heatlightning">
<B>heat lightning,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> flashes of lightning without any thunder, seen near the horizon, especially on hot summer evenings. The flashes are so distant that the thunder cannot be heard. </DL>
<A NAME="heatpipe">
<B>heat pipe,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a pipe containing fluid to transfer heat from one end to the other by a difference in pressures without external pumping or supporting mechanisms. <BR> <I>Ex. Heat pipes ... can transfer heat from a component such as a high power transistor or valve to an external heat sink with fantastic efficiency (New Scientist).</I> </DL>
<B>heat pump,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an electrically operated device that extracts heat from air, earth, or water. </DL>
<A NAME="heatrash">
<B>heat rash,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a red, itching rash on the skin; prickly heat. </DL>
<A NAME="heatresistant">
<B>heat-resistant, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> capable of withstanding high temperatures. <BR> <I>Ex. heat-resistant stainless steel.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="heatronic">
<B>heatronic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with a molding process in which high-frequency radio waves are used to heat plastic material before or during the molding process. </DL>
<A NAME="heatshield">
<B>heat shield,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a device that protects something from heat, as the covering of special material on the nose cone of a spacecraft which absorbs or diffuses the heat induced by friction when it reenters the earth's atmosphere. </DL>
<A NAME="heatsink">
<B>heat sink,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> any one of various devices or materials that absorb heat, such as heat exchangers or metallic elements. <BR> <I>Ex. In order to develop further the thermal conditions surrounding the spacecraft, these chambers are invariably equipped with shrouds of heat sinks (Karl A. Geiger).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="heatstroke">
<B>heatstroke, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> collapse or sudden illness with fever and dry skin, caused by overexposure to excessive heat, as from the infrared rays of the sun. </DL>
<A NAME="heattone">
<B>heat tone,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the sum of heat produced in a chemical action and of the external work performed expressed in heat units. </DL>
<A NAME="heattransfer">
<B>heat transfer,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the flow of heat from warmer bodies to colder bodies; the transfer of heat between solids, liquids, or gases, by conduction, convection, or radiation. </DL>
<A NAME="heattreat">
<B>heat-treat, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to treat by the application of heat. <BR> <I>Ex. to heat-treat strawberry plants, to heat-treat fabrics.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to subject to heat treatment. </DL>
<A NAME="heattreatment">
<B>heat treatment,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a process by which certain kinds of metal are improved by being heated to a high temperature, rapidly cooled, and then reheated to a lower temperature. </DL>
<A NAME="heatunit">
<B>heat unit,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a unit weight, as a pound or gram, of water one degree. <BR> <I>Ex. The British thermal unit and the calorie are heat units.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="heatwave">
<B>heat wave,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a period of very hot weather. <BR> <I>Ex. Hundreds of tons of pineapples rendered unfit for consumption during the heat wave in December were being dumped or buried on farms in the East London area (Cape Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="heave">
<B>heave, </B>verb, <B>heaved</B> or (especially Nautical) <B>hove,</B> <B>heaving,</B> noun, interjection.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to lift with force or effort; hoist. <BR> <I>Ex. He heaved the heavy box into the wagon. I saw the angels heave up Sir Lancelot into heaven, and the gates of heaven opened against him (Thomas Malory).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to lift and throw; cast; fling. <BR> <I>Ex. to heave a stone. The sailors heaved the anchor overboard.</I> (SYN) hurl. <DD><B> 3. </B>to give (a sigh or groan) with a deep, heavy breath or with effort. <BR> <I>Ex. to heave a sigh.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>to cause to rise and fall in repeated efforts. <BR> <I>Ex. When pity is heaving his bosom with emotion (William S. Gilbert).</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>to cause to swell up or bulge out. <BR> <I>Ex. tho' the Giant Ages heave the hill (Tennyson).</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>(Nautical.) to haul or pull on; draw, as with a rope or cable. <BR> <I>Ex. Sailors hove up the cable with windlass or capstan (New Scientist).</I> <DD><B> 7. </B>(Geology.) to thrust (a vein, etc.) out of place. <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1a. </B>to pull with force or effort; haul. <BR> <I>Ex. They heaved on the rope.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>to move a ship in a certain direction or way by such means. <DD><B> 2. </B>to rise and fall alternately. <BR> <I>Ex. Waves heave in a storm.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to breathe hard; pant; gasp. <DD><B> 4. </B>to vomit or try to vomit; retch. <DD><B> 5. </B>(of a ship) to move or turn in a certain direction or way. <DD><B> 6. </B>to rise; swell; bulge; be raised, thrown, or forced up. <BR> <I>Ex. The ground heaved from the earthquake.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>an act or fact of heaving; throw. <BR> <I>Ex. With a mighty heave, we pushed the boat into the water.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the act of swelling or rising up; rhythmical rising (and falling), as of waves. <BR> <I>Ex. Scobie never succeeded in sleeping properly again: his head began to ache from the heave of the van (Graham Greene).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Geology.) a horizontal displacement or dislocation of a vein or stratum at a fault. <DD><I>interj. </I> <BR><I>expr. <B>heave ho! </B>a cry of sailors when pulling up the anchor or doing other strenuous work as a group. <BR>expr. <B>heave in</B> (or <B>into</B>) <B>sight,</B> </I>to come into view. <BR> <I>Ex. As the clock struck two the old car could be heard chugging down the next street and hove into sight just a minute or two later.</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>heave to,</B> <DD><B> a. </B>to stop (a ship) especially by bringing its head into the wind and trimming the sails so that they act against one another. </I> <I>Ex. "Shorten sail ... and heave the ship to," said the Captain (Michael Scott).</I> <DD><B> b. </B>to stop in this manner. <BR> <I>Ex. The two vessels alternately sailed and dropped explosives, one being hove to and acting as receiving ship, while the other sailed (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="heavegate">
<B>heave gate,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) a gate which is opened by being lifted out of the sockets or mortises. </DL>
<A NAME="heaveho">
<B>heave-ho, </B>noun, verb, <B>-hoed</B> or <B>-ho'd,</B> <B>-hoing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) <DD><I>noun </I> (Informal.) an ejection, rejection, or dismissal. <BR> <I>Ex. insubordinate and peevish types who ... give the old heave-ho to visiting American Senators (Harper's).</I> <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to cry "heave ho!" <DD><B> 2. </B>to pull with great force. <BR> <I>Ex. The women ... are constantly hauling and heave-hoing on this packing case of merchandise (Manchester Guardian Weekly).</I> <DD><I>v.t. </I> to pull with great force. </DL>
