underweight Hear it!

underweight Definition

under·weight (un′dər wāt′; also, for adj., un′dər wāt′)

adjective

below the normal, desirable, or allowed weight

noun

weight that is less than needed, desired, or allowed

underweight Synonyms

underweight

modif.

gaunt, skinny, undersized, scrawny, puny; see also thin 2.

underweight Finance Definition
An investment or a sector that takes up a relatively small percentage of a portfolio. For example, an analyst might tell investors to underweight their holdings of technology stocks, or a person may say that their telecom holdings are underweighted. Underweight contrasts with overweight, which means that there is a disproportionately high amount of funds in a particular stock or sector.
underweight Usage Examples

Preposition: for

  • reason: Of course, women can be underweight for other reasons, such as illness or drug misuse.

Modifies a noun

  • baby: An underweight baby has a greater risk of having poor teeth due to the enamel not being formed properly.
  • bird: The high mortality reported over the two or three days prior to the visit was due to culling of underweight birds.
  • woman: I felt uncomfortable about some of the images, some of which show very stereotyped ideas of beauty, including some very underweight women.
  • child: Studying the effects of dental care on catch up growth in underweight children.
  • loaf: How many underweight loaves did you make in the first game?
  • category: Don't be tempted to try to get into the underweight category.

Modifying Another Word

  • severely: Never buy a dog that looks ill, or severely underweight or overweight.
  • slightly: He is in a fair condition despite his ordeal, but is slightly underweight and has been unable to shed his skin properly.
  • very: Unfortunately she was very underweight on arrival weighing only 2.3 kilos at nearly 13 months old.
  • extremely: Those of us who can do as we wish, however, can just ignore it, or be extremely underweight in the shares.
  • either: The energy intake of reptiles should be reassessed if the animal is either underweight or overweight, and food intake should be adjusted accordingly.
  • seriously: People with anorexia do not wish to starve themselves to death but they do deny how seriously underweight they are.

Used with adjective complement

  • bear: Babies that are born underweight are more likely to suffer from depression later in life, a study has today revealed.
  • appear: Although they may appear very underweight they will feel fat.
  • look: There are so many overweight dogs that a fit, lean dog looks underweight.