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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

weight       (wāt)  Pronunciation Key  n.   Abbr. wt. or w A measure of the heaviness of an object. The force with which a body is attracted to Earth or another celestial body, equal to the product of the object's mass and the acceleration of gravity. A unit measure of gravitational force: a table of weights and measures. A system of such measures: avoirdupois weight; troy weight. A metallic solid used as a standard of comparison in weighing. An object used to hold something else down. A counterbalance in a machine. Sports A heavy object, such as a dumbbell, lifted for exercise or in athletic competition. Influence, importance, or authority: Her approval carried great weight. See Synonyms at importance. Ponderous quality: the weight of the speaker's words. The measured heaviness of a specific object: a two-pound weight. An object used principally to exert a force by virtue of its gravitational attraction to Earth, especially: A metallic solid used as a standard of comparison in weighing. An object used to hold something else down. A counterbalance in a machine. Sports A heavy object, such as a dumbbell, lifted for exercise or in athletic competition. Influence, importance, or authority: Her approval carried great weight. See Synonyms at importance. Ponderous quality: the weight of the speaker's words. Excessive fat; corpulence: exercising in order to lose weight. Statistics A factor assigned to a number in a computation, as in determining an average, to make the number's effect on the computation reflect its importance. Oppressiveness; pressure: the weight of responsibilities. The greater part; preponderance: The weight of the evidence is against the defendant. Influence, importance, or authority: Her approval carried great weight. See Synonyms at importance. Ponderous quality: the weight of the speaker's words. Sports A classification according to comparative lightness or heaviness. Often used in combination: a heavyweight boxer. The heaviness or thickness of a fabric in relation to a particular season or use. Often used in combination: a summerweight jacket. tr.v.   weight·ed, weight·ing, weights To add to, by or as if by attaching a weight; make heavy or heavier. To load down, burden, or oppress. To increase the weight or body of (fabrics) by treating with chemicals. Statistics To assign weights or a weight to. To cause to have a slant or bias: weighted the rules in favor of homeowners. Sports To assign to (a horse) the weight it must carry as a handicap in a race. [Middle English wight, from Old English wiht; see wegh- in Indo-European roots.]

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
weight 

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

weight
noun
1.	the vertical force exerted by a mass as a result of gravity
2.	sports equipment used in calisthenic exercises and weightlifting; it is not attached to anything and is raised and lowered by use of the hands and arms
3.	the relative importance granted to something; "his opinion carries great weight"; "the progression implied an increasing weightiness of the items listed"
4.	an artifact that is heavy
5.	an oppressive feeling of heavy force; "bowed down by the weight of responsibility"
6.	a system of units used to express the weight of something [syn: system of weights]
7.	a unit used to measure weight; "he placed two weights in the scale pan" [syn: weight unit]
8.	(statistics) a coefficient assigned to elements of a frequency distribution in order to represent their relative importance
verb
1.	weight down with a load [syn: burden] [ant: disburden]
2.	present with a bias; "He biased his presentation so as to please the share holders" [syn: slant]

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source - Share This

weight

see by weight; carry weight; dead weight; pull one's weight; put on weight; throw one's weight around; worth one's weight in gold;

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

weight       (wāt)  Pronunciation Key  The force with which an object near the Earth or another celestial body is attracted toward the center of the body by gravity. An object's weight depends on its mass and the strength of the gravitational pull. The weight of an object in an aircraft flying at high altitude is less than its weight at sea level, since the strength of gravity decreases with increasing distance from the Earth's surface. The SI unit of weight is the newton, though units of mass such as grams or kilograms are used more informally to denote the weight of some mass, understood as the force acting on it in a gravitational field with a strength of one G. The pound is also still used as a unit of weight. A system of such measures, such as avoirdupois weight or troy weight. Our Living Language  : Although most hand-held calculators can translate pounds into kilograms, an absolute conversion factor between these two units is not technically sound. A pound is a unit of force, and a kilogram is a unit of mass. When the unit pound is used to indicate the force that a gravitational field exerts on a mass, the pound is a unit of weight. Mistaking weight for mass is tantamount to confusing the electric charges on two objects with the forces of attraction (or repulsion) between them. Like charge, the mass of an object is an intrinsic property of that object: electrons have a unique mass, protons have a unique mass, and some particles, such as photons, have no mass. Weight, on the other hand, is a force due to the gravitational attraction between two bodies. For example, one's weight on the Moon is 1/6 of one's weight on Earth. Nevertheless, one's mass on the Moon is identical to one's mass on Earth. The reason that hand-held calculators can translate between units of weight and units of mass is that the majority of us use calculators on the planet Earth at sea level, where the conversion factor is constant for all practical purposes.

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
weight

The force exerted on any object by gravity.

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

weight (wāt)
n.

1. The force with which a body is attracted to Earth or another celestial body and which is equal to the product of the object's mass and the acceleration of gravity.
2. A measure of the heaviness of an object.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Weight

Weight\, v. t. (Dyeing) To load (fabrics) as with barite, to increase the weight, etc.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Weight

Weight\, n. [OE. weght, wight, AS. gewiht; akin to D. gewigt, G. gewicht, Icel. v[ae]tt, Sw. vigt, Dan. v[ae]gt. See Weigh, v. t.]

1. The quality of being heavy; that property of bodies by which they tend toward the center of the earth; the effect of gravitative force, especially when expressed in certain units or standards, as pounds, grams, etc.

Note: Weight differs from gravity in being the effect of gravity, or the downward pressure of a body under the influence of gravity; hence, it constitutes a measure of the force of gravity, and being the resultant of all the forces exerted by gravity upon the different particles of the body, it is proportional to the quantity of matter in the body.

2. The quantity of heaviness; comparative tendency to the center of the earth; the quantity of matter as estimated by the balance, or expressed numerically with reference to some standard unit; as, a mass of stone having the weight of five hundred pounds.

For sorrow, like a heavy-hanging bell, Once set on ringing, with his own weight goes. --Shak.

3. Hence, pressure; burden; as, the weight of care or business. "The weight of this said time." --Shak.

For the public all this weight he bears. --Milton.

[He] who singly bore the world's sad weight. --Keble.

4. Importance; power; influence; efficacy; consequence; moment; impressiveness; as, a consideration of vast weight.

In such a point of weight, so near mine honor. --Shak.

5. A scale, or graduated standard, of heaviness; a mode of estimating weight; as, avoirdupois weight; troy weight; apothecaries' weight.

6. A ponderous mass; something heavy; as, a clock weight; a paper weight.

A man leapeth better with weights in his hands. --Bacon.

7. A definite mass of iron, lead, brass, or other metal, to be used for ascertaining the weight of other bodies; as, an ounce weight.

8. (Mech.) The resistance against which a machine acts, as opposed to the power which moves it. [Obs.]

Atomic weight. (Chem.) See under Atomic, and cf. Element.

Dead weight, Feather weight, Heavy weight, Light weight, etc. See under Dead, Feather, etc.

Weight of observation (Astron. & Physics), a number expressing the most probable relative value of each observation in determining the result of a series of observations of the same kind.

Syn: Ponderousness; gravity; heaviness; pressure; burden; load; importance; power; influence; efficacy; consequence; moment; impressiveness.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Weight

Weight\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Weighted; p. pr. & vb. n. Weighting.]

1. To load with a weight or weights; to load down; to make heavy; to attach weights to; as, to weight a horse or a jockey at a race; to weight a whip handle.

The arrows of satire, . . . weighted with sense. --Coleridge.

2. (Astron. & Physics) To assign a weight to; to express by a number the probable accuracy of, as an observation. See Weight of observations, under Weight.