heave (redirected from hove)

*old heave-ho

the act of throwing someone out; the act of firing someone. (From nautical use, where sailors used heave-ho to coordinate hard physical labor. One sailor called "Heave-ho," and all the sailors would pull at the same time on the ho. *Typically: get ~; give someone ~.) I wanted to complain to the management, but they called a security guard and I got the old heave-ho. That's right. They threw me out! They fired a number of people today, but I didn't get the heave-ho.

See also: old

heave something at someone or something

to throw something at someone or something. Fred heaved a huge snowball at Roger. The thug heaved the rock at the window and broke it to pieces.

heave something up 

1. Lit. to lift something up. With a lot of effort, they heaved the heavy lid up. The workers heaved up the huge boulder.

2. Fig. to vomit something up. The dog heaved most of the cake up on the kitchen floor. It heaved up the cake it had eaten.

See also: up

heave in(to) sight

Fig. to move into sight in the distance. As the fog cleared, a huge ship heaved into sight. After many days of sailing, land finally heaved in sight.

See also: sight

heave to

to stop a sailing ship by facing it directly into the wind. The captain gave the order to heave to. The ship hove to and everyone had a swim.

---

give somebody the (old) heave ho  (informal)

to make someone leave a job, or to end your relationship with someone (usually passive) When sales fell, most of the staff were given the old heave ho.

See also: give