weigh
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: wā
ipa: /weɪ/
rhymes: -eɪ
homophone: way
homophone: Wei
homophone: wey
homophone: whey (wine–whine merger)
Forms: form: weighs
form: weighing
form: weighed
form: weighed
form: waye
form: weye
Etymology: From Middle English weyen, from Old English wegan, from Proto-West Germanic *wegan, from Proto-Germanic *weganą (“to move, carry, weigh”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéǵʰeti, from *weǵʰ- (“to bring, transport”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots wey, wee, Dutch wegen, German wiegen, wägen, Danish veje, Norwegian Bokmål veie, Norwegian Nynorsk vega. Doublet of wedge, wagon, way, and vector.
Senses: glosses: To determine the weight of an object.
examples: text: He weighed out two kilos of oranges for a client.
glosses: Often with "out", to measure a certain amount of something by its weight, e.g. for sale.
examples: text: You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
text: He took a long time weighing his options.
text: As they started picking features, customers would carefully weigh the choices, but as decision fatigue set in they'd start settling for whatever the default option was.
ref: 2011, Roy F. Baumeister, John Tierney, Willpower, →ISBN, page 103:
glosses: To determine the intrinsic value or merit of an object, to evaluate.
examples: text: But ſhe thereof grew proud and inſolent, / That none ſhe worthie thought to be her fere, / But ſcornd them all, that loue vnto her ment; / Yet was ſhe lou’d of many a worthy pere, / Vnworthy ſhe to be belou’d ſo dere, / That could not weigh of worthineſſe aright.
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 444:
glosses: To judge; to estimate.
glosses: To consider a subject.
examples: text: I weigh ten and a half stone.
glosses: To have a certain weight.
examples: text: If they ſhall faile, I with mine Enemies
Will triumph o're my perſon, which I waigh not,
Being of thoſe Vertues vacant.
ref: 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 228, column 1:
text: They only weigh the heavier.
ref: 1782, William Cowper, “The Yearly Distress or, Tithing-Time in Essex”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To have weight; to be heavy; to press down.
examples: text: Your vowes to her, and me,[…] / Will euen weigh, and both as light as tales.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 154, column 1:
text: I anſwer, this is a good Objection, and ought to weigh with thoſe whoſe Reading is deſign’d for much Talk and little Knowledge, and I have nothing to ſay to it.
ref: a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC, § 19, page 62:
glosses: To be considered as important; to have weight in the intellectual balance.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To raise an anchor free of the seabed.
examples: text: Towards the euening we wayed, & approaching the ſhoare [...], we landed where there lay a many of baskets and much bloud, but ſaw not a Salvage.
ref: 1624, Walter Russell, Anas Todkill, Thomas Momford, “The Accidents that hapned in the Discovery of the Bay of Chisapeack”, in Iohn Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: […], London: […] I[ohn] D[awson] and I[ohn] H[aviland] for Michael Sparkes, →OCLC, book 3; reprinted in The Generall Historie of Virginia, … (Bibliotheca Americana), Cleveland, Oh.: The World Publishing Company, 1966, →OCLC, page 56:
text: Here we used to remain until nearly time for slack-water again, when we weighed and made for home.
ref: 1841, Edgar Allan Poe, A Descent into the Maelström:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To weigh anchor.
examples: text: Weigh the vessel up.
ref: 1782, William Cowper, On the Loss of the Royal George:
glosses: To bear up; to raise; to lift into the air; to swing up.
examples: text: Thinke you I weigh this treaſure more than you?
Not all the Gold in Indias welthy armes,
Shall buy the meaneſt ſouldier in my traine.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
text: Them all, and all that ſhe ſo deare did way,[…]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book VII, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 55, page 358:
text: Kat. So do not you, for you are a light Wench. / Roſ. Indeed I waigh not you, and therefore light. / Ka. You waigh me not, O that’s you care not for me.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 137, column 1:
glosses: To consider as worthy of notice; to regard.
Derived terms: aweigh
beweigh
downweigh
foreweigh
overweigh
weigh against
weigh down
weigh enough
weigh in the balance
weigh in
weigh-in
weigh off
weigh on
weigh one's words
weigh out
weigh station
weight
weighty
weigh up
Related terms: weight