- heavy
- heavy, weighty, ponderous, cumbrous, cumbersome, hefty.Something is heavy which is denser and more compact in substance or larger in size or amount than the average of its kind or class and so weighs more in proportion{
lead is a heavy metal
}{a heavy stone
}{a heavy child for his age
}{a heavy silk
}{heavy bread
}In extended use what is heavy weighs down the senses or the spirits or is of such nature that the mind or the body finds difficult to bear or endure{there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac— Wilde
}{there was the crushing sense ... of having been put down as a tiresome and heavy young man— Benson
}{when a great writer . . . creates a speech of his own which is too clumsy to be flexible and too heavy to be intimate— Ellis
}Often, also, heavy is applied to the heart, the mind, or the body to imply a being weighed down (as with grief, worry, weariness, or overwork){the old minister's heart was often heavy in his breast— Deland
}{when he was not too heavy with fatigue— Mary Austin
}At other times the term merely implies a lack of some quality (as lightness, vivacity, or grace) which enlivens and stimulates{compared with her, other women were heavy and dull . . . they had not that something in their glance that made one's blood tingle— Cather
}Something is weighty which is actually and not merely relatively heavy{the larger trucks will carry the weighty packages
}{as weighty bodies to the center tend— Pope
}In extended use what is weighty is highly important or momentous{weighty matters of state
}{weighty questions for consideration
}{a work whose weighty theme should give it unity enough— Times Lit. Sup.
}or produces a powerful effect or exerts an impressive influence{weighty arguments
}{a weighty speech
}{there were also weighty reasons of statecraft to influence him— Buchan
}Something is ponderous which is exceedingly heavy because of its size or its massiveness and cannot move or be moved quickly{a ponderous shield
}{a ponderous machine
}{the sepulcher . . . hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws— Shak.
}In extended use what is ponderous is unduly intricate, involved, complicated, or labored{his ponderous work on the fairy mythology of Europe— Meredith
}{ponderous jests
}{I have heard mathematicians groaning over the demonstrations of Kelvin. Ponderous and clumsy, they bludgeon the mind into a reluctant assent— Huxley
}Something is cumbrous or cumbersome which is so heavy and so bulky that it is difficult to deal with (as in moving or carrying){the only currency in circulation was of iron, so cumbrous that it was impossible to accumulate or conceal it— Dickinson
}{its space was pretty well occupied with the two beds, and the cumbrous furniture that had been bought for a larger house— Archibald Marshall
}{the cumbersome old table with twisted legs— Dickens
}In extended use both words are applicable to what is both ponderous and unwieldy{he is the Philistine who upholds and aids the heavy, cumbrous, blind, mechanical forces of society— Wilde
}{he also uses a cumbersome and high- sounding terminology which has a mystifying effect— Weldon
}Something is hefty which one estimates as heavy or weighty (as by holding in one's hands or by measuring with one's eyes){a hefty fellow, in the habit of standing no nonsense— Maugham
}{a hefty chair
}{she has grown hefty since I saw her last
}In extended use the word may imply a generous amount or portion{a hefty boost in wages
}{a good, hefty slice of pie
}Analogous words: solid, hard, *firm: oppressing or oppressive, weighing down or upon, depressing (see corresponding verbs at DEPRESS)Antonyms: light
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
