weight
See also: Weight
English
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”).
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”) and German Gewicht (“weight”).
Pronunciation
- enPR: wāt, IPA(key): /weɪt/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (file) - Rhymes: -eɪt
- Homophone: wait
Noun
weight (countable and uncountable, plural weights)
- The force on an object due to the gravitational attraction between it and the Earth (or whatever astronomical object it is primarily influenced by).
- An object used to make something heavier.
- A standardized block of metal used in a balance to measure the mass of another object.
- Importance or influence.
- 1897, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 1945 Mikia Pezas, The price of liberty, I. Washburn, Inc., p11
- "You surely are a man of some weight around here," I said.
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- (weightlifting) An object, such as a weight plate or barbell, used for strength training.
- He's working out with weights.
- (physics) Mass (atomic weight, molecular weight, etc.) (in restricted circumstances)
- (physics, proscribed) Synonym of mass (in general circumstances)
- (measurement) Mass (net weight, troy weight, carat weight, etc.).
- (statistics) A variable which multiplies a value for ease of statistical manipulation.
- (topology) The smallest cardinality of a base.
- (typography) The boldness of a font; the relative thickness of its strokes.
- (visual art) The relative thickness of a drawn rule or painted brushstroke, line weight.
- (visual art) The illusion of mass.
- (visual art) The thickness and opacity of paint.
- Pressure; burden.
- the weight of care or business
- (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
- The weight of this sad time.
- (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
- For the public all this weight he bears.
- The resistance against which a machine acts, as opposed to the power which moves it.
- (slang, uncountable) Shipments of (often illegal) drugs.
- He was pushing weight.
- (slang, countable) One pound (1 lb) of drugs, especially cannabis.
- 2002, Nicholas Dorn, Karim Murji, Nigel South, Traffickers: Drug Markets and Law Enforcement (page 5)
- [I was] doing a weight [1 lb. at that time] a week, sometimes more, sometimes less.
- 2009, Martina Cole, The Ladykiller
- 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 […]
- 2002, Nicholas Dorn, Karim Murji, Nigel South, Traffickers: Drug Markets and Law Enforcement (page 5)
Alternative forms
- wt. (abbreviation)
Derived terms
- bantamweight
- biweight
- body weight, bodyweight
- counterweight
- curb weight
- featherweight
- flyweight
- heavyweight
- kerb weight
- lightweight
- lose weight
- net weight
- overweight
- paperweight
- pseudoweight
- pull one's weight
- put on weight
- throw one's weight around
- topweight
- triweight
- underweight
- weight class
- weightful, weightfully, weightfulness
- weightless
- weightlifter
- weightlifting
- weight loss
- weight of the world
- weight-watcher
- weighty
- welterweight
Related terms
Coordinate terms
Translations
force due to gravity
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object to make something heavier
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standardized measuring weight
importance or influence
weight for training muscles
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physics: mass — see mass
statistics: multiplier
typography: boldness of a font
illusion of mass
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Verb
weight (third-person singular simple present weights, present participle weighting, simple past and past participle weighted)
- (transitive) To add weight to something; to make something heavier.
- (transitive, dyeing) To load (fabrics) with barite, etc. to increase the weight.
- (transitive) To load, burden or oppress someone.
- (transitive, mathematics) To assign weights to individual statistics.
- (transitive) To bias something; to slant.
- (transitive, horse racing) To handicap a horse with a specified weight.
- (transitive, sports) To give a certain amount of force to a throw, kick, hit, etc.
Translations
add weight
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oppress
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in mathematics
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