weight

noun

1》 a body's relative mass or the quantity of matter contained by it, giving rise to a downward force; heaviness.

    ↘Physics the force exerted on the mass of a body by a gravitational field.

    ↘the quality of being heavy.

    ↘a unit or system of units used for expressing how much something weighs.

2》 a piece of metal known to weigh a definite amount and used on scales to determine how heavy something is.

    ↘a heavy object, especially one being lifted or carried or used as a counterpoise in a mechanism.

    ↘(weights) heavy blocks or discs used in weightlifting or weight training.

3》 the surface density of cloth, used as a measure of its quality.

4》 ability to influence decisions or actions.

    ↘the importance attached to something.

5》 a feeling of oppression or pressure: a weight on one's mind.

6》 Statistics a factor associated with one of a set of numerical quantities, used to represent its importance relative to the other members of the set.

verb

1》 hold (something) down by placing a heavy object on top of it.

2》 attach importance or value to.

    ↘plan or arrange so as to give someone or something an advantage.

3》 Statistics multiply the components of (an average) by factors to take account of their importance.

4》 assign a handicap weight to (a horse).

5》 treat (a fabric) with a mineral to make it seem thicker and heavier.

Phrases

be worth one's weight in gold be very useful or helpful.

throw one's weight about (or around) informal be unpleasantly self-assertive.

Origin

OE (ge)wiht, of Gmc origin; form influenced by weigh¹.