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weight Definition

weight (wāt)

noun

  1. a portion or quantity weighing a definite or specified amount ten pounds weight of lead
    1. heaviness as a quality of things
    2. Physics the force of gravity acting on a body, equal to the mass of the body multiplied by the acceleration of gravity
    1. quantity or amount of heaviness; how much a thing weighs
    2. the amount a specified thing should weigh
    1. any unit of heaviness or mass
    2. any system of such units troy weight, avoirdupois weight
    3. a piece, as of metal, of a specific standard heaviness, used on a balance or scale in weighing
  5. any block or mass of material used for its heaviness; specif.,
    1. one used to hold light things down or in position a paperweight
    2. one used to drive a mechanism the weights in a clock
    3. one used to maintain balance weights placed on an automobile wheel
    4. one of a particular heaviness, lifted as an athletic exercise
    1. any heavy thing or load
    2. a burden or oppressiveness, as of responsibility or sorrow
  7. importance or consequence a matter of great weight
  8. influence, power, or authority to throw one's weight to the losing side
  9. the relative thickness or heaviness of a fabric or an article of clothing as proper to a particular season, use, etc. a suit of summer weight
  10. Printing the relative thickness of the lines in type fonts
  11. Sports
    1. any of the several classifications into which boxers and wrestlers are placed according to how much they weigh
    2. the number of pounds a horse is required to carry for a particular race, including the weight of the jockey, the saddle, and, often, added lead weights
  12. Statistics a constant assigned to a single item in a frequency distribution, indicative of the item's relative importance

Etymology: ME weiht, altered (infl. by weien, weigh) < OE wiht < wegan: see weigh

transitive verb

  1. to add weight to; make heavy or heavier
  2. to burden; load down; oppress
  3. to treat (thread or fabric) with a solution of metallic salts, in order to increase its weight
  4. to manage, control, or influence in a particular direction or so as to favor a particular side; slant the evidence was weighted against the defendant
  5. Statistics to assign a weight to in a frequency distribution

weight Idioms

by weight

as determined by weighing

carry weight

to be important, influential, etc.

pull one's weight

to do one's share

throw one's weight around

to take undue advantage of one's authority or rank; be overbearing

weight Synonyms

weight

n.

  1. Heaviness

    pressure, load, gross weight, net weight, dead weight, molecular weight, gravity, heft, burden, mass, density, adiposity, ponderousness, tonnage, ballast, substance, G-factor*; see also measurement 2, pressure 1.

    Antonyms lightness*, buoyancy, airiness.

    Common weights include: dram, grain, ounce, pound, stone (British), hundredweight, ton, long ton, gram, kilogram, centigram, kilo, gram molecule, milligram, metric ton, metric carat, carat (grain), mole, tonneau, denier, assay ton, quintal, scruple.

  2. An object used for its weight

    counterbalance, counterweight, counterpoise, ballast, paperweight, stone, rock, leadweight, sinker, anchor, plumb, sandbag.

  3. Importance

    influence, authority, sway; see importance 1, power 2. See syn. study at importance, influence.

weight Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • lose: Mom of four Kerry loved the online plan She lost weight just in time to go on holiday with her family.
  • carry: Carrying top weight is not just the reason either, physical activity itself can directly protect from bowel cancer.
  • lift: Lifting free weights improves your coordination by improving the neuromuscular pathways that connect your muscles to the central nervous system.
  • lend: The fact that the old designs were successful lends weight to the usefulness of the design assumptions.

Adjective modifier

  • molecular: Typically, the molecular weight is measured using static light scattering.
  • gross: There is concern, however, that some loads may exceed the gross vehicle weight, axle specific weights, or both.
  • heavy: I'm sure most of you have read that the only thing important for mass is using heavy weights all the time.
  • sheer: The idea is that the sheer weight of the Table Tennis top keeps it in place.
  • atomic: Another 21 % of the air is oxygen, with the molecules having an atomic weight of 32.
  • excess: Rather the therapist would look at the reason why the client might need to carry excess weight.

Modifies a noun

  • loss: To achieve weight loss, we have to use more energy than we take in.
  • gain: Food ingestion relieved symptoms in 71 % of patients; 39 % reported weight gain.
  • lifting: He also has a black belt in Isshinryu Karate and has competed and won titles in martial arts and weight lifting competitions.

Noun used with modifier

  • birth: Low protein diets during early pregnancy in rats were found to significantly reduce birth weight of pups.
  • kg: Group 2 had reduced energy from fat by 8.0 per cent and also lost 1.2 kg body weight and 1.4 per cent body fat.
  • body: Worm fact: A worm is capable of eating at least half its own body weight per day.
  • mg/kg: In the rat there was also some evidence of abortion at 300 mg/kg body weight daily.

Preposition: in

  • kilogram: For a metric rough guide divide your weight in kilograms by 32.6 to give liters required per day.
  • gold: Your friendly words are worth their weight in gold.

Preposition: of

  • kg: Differential bone growth between large and small breeds of cattle is usually established prior to a slaughter weight of 500 kg in males.
weight Quotes

   Neville Chamberlain had greatness thrust upon himöand in trying to prove he could bear it, collapsed under the weight.

—Cannadine, David

My uncle was famous for his balanced point of view. At the time of which I am writing (when he was nearly seventy) it had become so balanced, that the act of balancing seemed rather automatic.One had only to offer him an opinion for him to balance it with a counter- opinion of exactly the same weight, as a grocer puts a pound weight against a pound of sugar.

—Spender, Sir Stephen Harold

A false balance is abomination to the L: but a just weight is his delight.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Instead of using onlycomparativeWords and intellectual Arguments, I have taken the course†to express myself inTerms of Number,Weight, or Measure; to use only Arguments of Sense, and to consider only such Causes, as have visible Foundations in Nature.

—Petty, Sir William

A pard-like Spirit, beautiful and swiftö A love in desolation masked;öa Power Girt round with weakness;öit can scarce uplift The weight of the superincumbent hour; It is a dying lamp, a falling shower, A breaking billow;öeven whilst we speak Is it not broken? Shelley

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

This business of womanhood is a heavy burden† And these days it is worse, with the poverty of blackness on one side and the weight of womanhood on the other.

—Dangarembga,Tsitsi

It often happens that a man of considerable eminence in his own profession, but without the smallest acquaintance with the fundamentals of economics, will make a suggestion which is precisely on a level with the proposition that the locomotive would be much more efficient if itsweight weretakenoffthe driving wheelsso that they could revolve more easily. The editor of an important magazineacceptswithjoy the contributionin whichhedevelopshisideas, and thepublic feebly thinks that there may be something in it, and is confirmed in this view by the fact that professional economists are as disinclined to publisha refutationof it asthe Astronomer Royal is to answer the theorists who declare that the world is flat.

—Cannan, Edwin