by weight

1. A measure of the heaviness of an object.

2. 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.

3. 1. A unit measure of gravitational force: a table of weights and measures.

   2. A system of such measures: avoirdupois weight; troy weight.

   3. A metallic solid used as a standard of comparison in weighing.

   4. An object used to hold something else down.

   5. A counterbalance in a machine.

   6. Sports A heavy object, such as a dumbbell, lifted for exercise or in athletic competition.

   7. Influence, importance, or authority: Her approval carried great weight. See Synonyms at importance.

   8. Ponderous quality: the weight of the speaker's words.

4. The measured heaviness of a specific object: a two-pound weight.

5. An object used principally to exert a force by virtue of its gravitational attraction to Earth, especially:

   1. A metallic solid used as a standard of comparison in weighing.

   2. An object used to hold something else down.

   3. A counterbalance in a machine.

   4. Sports A heavy object, such as a dumbbell, lifted for exercise or in athletic competition.

   5. Influence, importance, or authority: Her approval carried great weight. See Synonyms at importance.

   6. Ponderous quality: the weight of the speaker's words.

6. Excessive fat; corpulence: exercising in order to lose weight.

7. 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.

8. Oppressiveness; pressure: the weight of responsibilities.

9. The greater part; preponderance: The weight of the evidence is against the defendant.

10. 1. Influence, importance, or authority: Her approval carried great weight. See Synonyms at importance.

    2. Ponderous quality: the weight of the speaker's words.

11. Sports A classification according to comparative lightness or heaviness. Often used in combination: a heavyweight boxer.

12. The heaviness or thickness of a fabric in relation to a particular season or use. Often used in combination: a summerweight jacket.

1. To add to, by or as if by attaching a weight; make heavy or heavier.

2. To load down, burden, or oppress.

3. To increase the weight or body of (fabrics) by treating with chemicals.

4. Statistics To assign weights or a weight to.

5. To cause to have a slant or bias: weighted the rules in favor of homeowners.

6. Sports To assign to (a horse) the weight it must carry as a handicap in a race.

1. 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.

2. 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.