weight

See also: Weight

English

Alternative forms

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 +‎ -th.

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”).

Pronunciation
  • enPR: wāt, IPA(key): /weɪt/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪt
  • Homophone: wait

Noun
Weight (3) for balance.

weight (countable and uncountable, plural weights)

  1. The force an object exerts on the object it is on due to gravitation.
  2. An object used to make something heavier.
  3. A standardized block of metal used in a balance to measure the mass of another object.
  4. (figurative) Importance or influence.
    • 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:
      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., page 11:
      "You surely are a man of some weight around here," I said.
  5. (weightlifting) An object, such as a weight plate or barbell, used for strength training.
    He's working out with weights.
  6. (lubricants) Viscosity rating.
  7. (physics) Mass (atomic weight, molecular weight, etc.) (in restricted circumstances)
  8. (physics, proscribed) Synonym of mass (in general circumstances)
  9. (measurement) Mass (net weight, troy weight, carat weight, etc.).
  10. (statistics) A variable which multiplies a value for ease of statistical manipulation.
  11. (topology) The smallest cardinality of a base.
  12. (typography) The boldness of a font; the relative thickness of its strokes.
    font weight
  13. (visual art) The relative thickness of a drawn rule or painted brushstroke, line weight.
  14. (visual art) The illusion of mass.
  15. (visual art) The thickness and opacity of paint.
  16. (figurative) Pressure; burden.
    the weight of care or business
  17. The resistance against which a machine acts, as opposed to the power which moves it.
  18. (slang, uncountable) Shipments of (often illegal) drugs.
    He was pushing weight.
    • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 103:
      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.
  19. (slang, countable) One pound 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 […]
  20. (criminal slang, dated) Money.
    • 1974, Martin R. Haskell, Lewis Yablonsky, Crime and Delinquency, page 96:
      No matter how much money he makes, he is still a soldier, but he has the weight.
  21. Weight class
    • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
      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.

Alternative forms
  • wt. (abbreviation)

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Descendants
  • → Japanese: ウエイト (ueito)
  • → Burmese: ဝိတ် (wit)

Translations
physics: mass — see mass
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

weight (third-person singular simple present weights, present participle weighting, simple past and past participle weighted)

  1. (transitive) To add weight to something; to make something heavier.
    1. (transitive, dyeing) To load (fabrics) with barite, etc. to increase the weight.
  2. (transitive) To load, burden or oppress someone.
  3. (transitive, mathematics) To assign weights to individual statistics.
  4. (transitive) To bias something; to slant.
    • 2020 March 19, Marcus Ashworth, “Cheap Sterling Has Reasons to Be Cheaper”, in The Washington Post‎:
      The U.K. economy is heavily weighted towards the service sector and the coronavirus pandemic could lead to a 10% fall in gross domestic product in the second quarter, according to economists at Jefferies.
  5. (transitive, horse racing) To handicap a horse with a specified weight.
  6. (transitive, sports) To give a certain amount of force to a throw, kick, hit, etc.
    • 2008, Tom Valenta, Remember Me, Mrs V?: Caring for My Wife: Her Alzheimer's and Others' Stories‎, ReadHowYouWant:
      With good peripheral vision he spots his teammate, Ray Evans, lurking in the scoring zone and sweeps a perfectly weighted pass to him.

Translations
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