Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - weight

(weights, weighting, weighted) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. The weight of a person or thing is how heavy they are, measured in units such as kilograms, pounds, or tons. What is your height and weight?... This reduced the weight of the load... Turkeys can reach enormous weights of up to 50 pounds. N-VAR: oft amount in N, with poss, N of amount • If someone loses weight, they become lighter. If they gain weight or put on weight, they become heavier. I’m lucky really as I never put on weight... He lost two stone in weight during his time there. PHRASE: V inflects 2. A person’s or thing’s weight is the fact that they are very heavy. Despite the vehicle’s size and weight it is not difficult to drive. N-UNCOUNT: with poss 3. If you move your weight, you change position so that most of the pressure of your body is on a particular part of your body. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other... He kept the weight from his left leg. N-SING: poss/the N 4. Weights are objects which weigh a known amount and which people lift as a form of exercise. I was in the gym lifting weights. N-COUNT: usu pl 5. Weights are metal objects which weigh a known amount and which are used on a set of scales to weigh other things. N-COUNT 6. You can refer to a heavy object as a weight, especially when you have to lift it. Straining to lift heavy weights can lead to a rise in blood pressure. N-COUNT 7. If you weight something, you make it heavier by adding something to it, for example in order to stop it from moving easily. It can be sewn into curtain hems to weight the curtain and so allow it to hang better. VERB: V n 8. If you weight things, you give them different values according to how important or significant they are. ...a computer program which weights the different transitions according to their likelihood... This takes account of the number of countries in which a company wins approval for a new drug, weighted by the size of each country’s market. VERB: V n, V-ed 9. If something is given a particular weight, it is given a particular value according to how important or significant it is. The scientists involved put different weight on the conclusions of different models... = weighting N-VAR 10. If someone or something gives weight to what a person says, thinks, or does, they emphasize its significance. The fact that he is gone has given more weight to fears that he may try to launch a civil war... N-UNCOUNT 11. If you give something or someone weight, you consider them to be very important or influential in a particular situation. Consumers generally place more weight on negative information than on the positive when deciding what to buy. N-UNCOUNT 12. see also weighting, dead weight 13. If a person or their opinion carries weight, they are respected and are able to influence people. That argument no longer carries as much weight... Senator Kerry carries considerable weight in Washington. PHRASE: V inflects 14. If you say that someone or something is worth their weight in gold, you are emphasizing that they are so useful, helpful, or valuable that you feel you could not manage without them. Any successful manager is worth his weight in gold. PHRASE: v-link PHR c darkgreen]emphasis 15. If you pull your weight, you work as hard as everyone else who is involved in the same task or activity. He accused the team of not pulling their weight. PHRASE: V inflects 16. a weight off your mind: see mind