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.