heavy

adjective

1)

a heavy box

Syn:

weighty, hefty, substantial, ponderous; solid, dense, leaden; burdensome; informal hulking, weighing a ton

Ant:

light

2)

a heavy man

Syn:

overweight, fat, obese, corpulent, large, bulky, stout, stocky, portly, plump, paunchy, fleshy; informal hulking, tubby, beefy, porky, pudgy

Ant:

thin

3)

a heavy blow to the head

Syn:

forceful, hard, strong, violent, powerful, vigorous, mighty, hefty, sharp, smart, severe

Ant:

gentle

4)

a gardener did the heavy work for me

Syn:

arduous, hard, physical, laborious, difficult, strenuous, demanding, tough, onerous, back-breaking, grueling; archaic toilsome

Ant:

easy

5)

a heavy burden of responsibility

Syn:

onerous, burdensome, demanding, challenging, difficult, formidable, weighty; worrisome, stressful, trying, crushing, oppressive

Ant:

undemanding, moderate

6)

heavy fog

Syn:

dense, thick, soupy, murky, impenetrable

Ant:

light, wispy

7)

a heavy sky

Syn:

overcast, cloudy, clouded, gray, dull, gloomy, murky, dark, black, stormy, leaden, lowering

Ant:

sunny, bright

8)

heavy rain

Syn:

torrential, relentless, copious, teeming, severe

Ant:

light, intermittent

9)

heavy soil

Syn:

clayey, muddy, sticky, wet

Ant:

friable, dry

10)

a heavy fine

Syn:

sizable, hefty, substantial, colossal, big, considerable; stiff; informal tidy, whopping, steep, astronomical

Ant:

small

11)

heavy seas

Syn:

tempestuous, turbulent, rough, wild, stormy, choppy, squally

Ant:

calm

12)

heavy fighting

Syn:

intense, fierce, vigorous, relentless, all-out, severe, serious

Ant:

halfhearted

13)

a heavy drinker

Syn:

immoderate, excessive, intemperate, overindulgent, unrestrained, uncontrolled

Ant:

moderate

14)

a heavy meal

Syn:

substantial, filling, hearty, large, big, ample, sizable, generous, square, solid

Ant:

light

15)

their diet is heavy on vegetables

Syn:

abounding in, abundant in, lavish with, profuse with, unstinting with, using a lot of

Ant:

light on

16)

he felt heavy and very tired

Syn:

lethargic, listless, sluggish, torpid, languid, apathetic, logy

Ant:

energetic, animated

17)

a heavy heart

Syn:

sad, sorrowful, melancholy, gloomy, downcast, downhearted, heartbroken, dejected, disconsolate, demoralized, despondent, depressed, crestfallen, desolate, down; informal blue; literary dolorous

Ant:

cheerful

18)

these poems are rather heavy

Syn:

tedious, difficult, dull, dry, serious, heavy going, dreary, boring, turgid, uninteresting

19)

branches heavy with blossoms

Syn:

laden, loaded, covered, filled, groaning, bursting, teeming, abounding

20)

a heavy crop

Syn:

bountiful, plentiful, abundant, large, bumper, rich, copious, considerable, sizable, profuse; informal whopping; literary plenteous

Ant:

meager

21)

he has heavy features

Syn:

coarse, rough, rough-hewn, unrefined; rugged, craggy

Ant:

delicate

••

heavy, burdensome, cumbersome, massive, ponderous, weighty

Trying to move a refrigerator out of a third-floor apartment is difficult because it is cumbersome, which means that it is so heavy and bulky that it becomes unwieldy or awkward to handle. Cartons filled with books, on the other hand, are merely heavy, which implies greater density and compactness than the average load. A huge oak dining table might be described as massive, which stresses largeness and solidity rather than weight, while something that is ponderous is too large or too massive to move, or to be moved quickly (a ponderous printing press). Most of these terms can be used figuratively as well. Heavy, for example, connotes a pressing down on the mind, spirits, or senses (heavy with fatigue; a heavy heart) and ponderous implies a dull and labored quality (a novel too ponderous to read). Burdensome, which refers to something that is not only heavy but must be carried or supported, is even more likely to be used in an abstract way to describe something that is difficult but can, with effort, be managed (a burdensome task). Both a package and a problem may be described as weighty, meaning actually (as opposed to relatively) heavy; but it is more commonly used to mean very important or momentous (weighty matters to discuss).