Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A handle or hilt, especially the handle of a tool or weapon.
  • transitive verb To fit into or equip with a hilt or handle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A handle; specifically, the handle of a cutting or thrusting instrument, as a knife, sword, or dagger; a hilt.
  • noun A place of abode; dwelling; lodging.
  • To set in a haft; furnish with a handle.
  • To drive up to the haft or hilt, as a knife or dirk.
  • To fix or settle firmly; plant.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A handle; that part of an instrument or vessel taken into the hand, and by which it is held and used; -- said chiefly of a knife, sword, or dagger; the hilt.
  • noun Scot. A dwelling.
  • transitive verb To set in, or furnish with, a haft.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Northern England A piece of mountain pasture to which a farm animal has become hefted.
  • noun The handle of a tool or weapon.
  • verb To fit a handle to a tool or weapon.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the handle of a weapon or tool

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English hæft; see kap- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English hæft, Old High German heften make fast.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse hefð.

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