Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) the female breast.

1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn).
1688		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Heaver A Breast.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 207: Heaver, a brest.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 16: A Breast – Heaver.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 41: heaver The breast or chest of a person.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).

2. a person in love.

1859

Matsell Vocabulum 41: heavers Persons in love.

3. the male chest.

1858

A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 190: The return compliment was on Jack’s ‘heaver,’ putting a dab of rouge on the breast.

4. (US black) a self-styled great lover, esp. of the more earthy, animalistic type.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].