weight
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: wāt
ipa: /weɪt/
rhymes: -eɪt
homophone: wait
Forms: form: weights
form: wt.
form: waight
Etymology: From Middle English weight, weiȝte, weght, wight, from Old English wiht, ġewiht (“weight”), from Proto-Germanic *wihtiz ("weight"; compare *weganą (“to move”)), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to move; pull; draw; drive”). Equivalent to weigh + -t (abstract nominal suffix).
Cognate with Scots wecht, weicht (“weight”), Saterland Frisian Wächte (“scale”), Gewicht (“weight”), West Frisian gewicht (“weight”), Dutch gewicht (“weight”), German Low German Wicht, Gewicht (“weight”), German Wucht (“massiveness, force”), Gewicht (“weight”).
Senses: glosses: The downwards force an object experiences due to gravity.
glosses: An object used to make something heavier.
glosses: A standardized block of metal used in a balance to measure the mass of another object.
examples: text: I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: Another knight came to settle on the island, a man of much weight and position, on whom the Adelantados of all the island relied, and who was made a magistrate.
ref: 1907 Alonso de Espinosa, Hakluyt Society & Sir Clements Robert Markham, The Guanches of Tenerife: the holy image of Our Lady of Candelaria, and the Spanish conquest and settlement, Printed for the Hakluyt Society, p116
text: "You surely are a man of some weight around here," I said.
ref: 1945, Mikia Pezas, The price of liberty, I. Washburn, Inc., page 11:
glosses: Importance or influence.
examples: text: He's working out with weights.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
weightlifting
glosses: An object, such as a weight plate or barbell, used for strength training.
topics: engineering
lubricants
mechanical-engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Viscosity rating.
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: Mass (atomic weight, molecular weight, etc.) (in restricted circumstances).
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: Synonym of mass (in general circumstances).
synonyms: word: mass
extra: in general circumstances
examples: text: I'm the same weight as I was ten years ago.
qualifier: measurement
glosses: Mass (net weight, troy weight, carat weight, etc.).
topics: mathematics
sciences
statistics
glosses: A variable which multiplies a value for ease of statistical manipulation.
topics: mathematics
sciences
topology
glosses: The smallest cardinality of a base.
examples: text: font weight
topics: media
publishing
typography
glosses: The boldness of a font; the relative thickness of its strokes.
topics: arts
visual-art
visual-arts
glosses: The relative thickness of a drawn rule or painted brushstroke, line weight.
topics: arts
visual-art
visual-arts
glosses: The illusion of mass.
topics: arts
visual-art
visual-arts
glosses: The thickness and opacity of paint.
examples: text: If you'd like to use a different weight of yarn, just check the label for the recommended crochet hook size and use that.
ref: 2011 August 23, Carmen Heffernan, “How to make colourful crocheted flowers”, in The Guardian:
glosses: The thickness of yarn.
examples: text: the weight of care or business
text: The waight of this ſad time we muſt obey[…]
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 309, column 2:
text: For the public all this weight he bears.
ref: 1671, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:
glosses: Pressure; burden.
glosses: The resistance against which a machine acts, as opposed to the power which moves it.
examples: text: He was pushing weight.
text: The three of us were hanging out rapping in Hamilton projects with some niggahs Pimp had got tight with on Rikers Island. Them fools had done a push-in and took over some old lady's apartment, and they were in there cutting crack and mixing weight.
ref: 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 103:
glosses: Shipments of (often illegal) drugs.
examples: text: [I was] doing a weight [1 lb. at that time] a week, sometimes more, sometimes less.
ref: 2002, Nicholas Dorn, Karim Murji, Nigel South, Traffickers: Drug Markets and Law Enforcement, page 5:
text: The ones the CIB should be looking out for, to her mind, were the officers who raided a flat, found a couple of weights of cannabis and stashed half of it before they made the collar. The cannabis would make its way back on to the street […]
ref: 2009, Martina Cole, The Ladykiller:
glosses: One pound of drugs, especially cannabis.
examples: text: No matter how much money he makes, he is still a soldier, but he has the weight.
ref: 1974, Martin R. Haskell, Lewis Yablonsky, Crime and Delinquency, page 96:
qualifier: crime slang
glosses: Money.
examples: text: You’re no match for ’em. You ain’t up to their weight. It’s like little Black Strap standing up to Tom Spring,—the Black’s a pretty fighter but, Law bless you, his arm ain’t long enough to touch Tom,—and I tell you, you’re going it with fellers beyond your weight.
ref: 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
glosses: Weight class
examples: text: “Logits” are the vectors of weights.
ref: 2024, Laura Masbruch, Pasta Land:
text: Even though it's got its two features of color and hardness, it doesn't know how much importance or, as computer scientists say, weight to place on each of them.
ref: 2017, Up and Atom, Machine Learning Explained in 5 Minutes:
glosses: Emphasis applied to a given criterion.
raw_tags: in computing
Coordinate terms: mass
inertial mass
gravitational mass
Derived terms: absolute weight
all-up weight
Aran weight
axle weight
axleweight
baby weight
balance weight
balanceweight
bantamweight
birth weight
biscuit weight
biweight
body weight
bodyweight
carcass weight
carry one's own weight
carry one's weight
carry weight
casting weight
coin weight
combining weight
counterweight
curb weight
dead weight
draw weight
dry weight
equal weight
equivalent weight
featherweight
flyweight
free weight
gain weight
give weight
gram-molecular weight
gross vehicle weight rating
gross weight
heavyweight
hit above one's weight
hit below one's weight
kerb weight
lightweight
light-weight
live weight
lose weight
molecular-weight
must weight
neat weight
net weight
non-weight-bearing
overweight
paperweight
pseudoweight
pull one's own weight
pull one's weight
punch above one's weight
punch below one's weight
put on weight
sash weight
short weight
syllable weight
take the weight off
take the weight off one's feet
throw one's weight around
throw one's weight behind
throw-weight
topweight
triweight
underweight
weight bar
weight bear
weight-bear
weight-bearing
weight class
weight down
weight for age
weightful
weightfully
weightfulness
weight gain
weight gainer
weightless
weight-lift
weightlifter
weight lifter
weight lifting
weightlifting
weight loss
weight measure
weight off someone's mind
weight off someone's shoulders
weight of the world
weightometer
weight rack
weight room
weight-saving
weight stack
weight-train
weight training
weight-watcher
weight watcher
weight weenie
weighty
welterweight
welter-weight
worth one's weight in gold
worth one's weight in salt
yo-weight
yo-yo weight
Related terms: weigh