■ 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.
↘( ~s ) heavy blocks or discs used in ~lifting or ~ 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 ~ 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 ~ to (a horse).
5》 treat (a fabric) with a mineral to make it seem thicker and heavier.
Phrases
be worth one's ~ in gold be very useful or helpful.
throw one's ~ about (or around ) informal be unpleasantly self-assertive.
Origin
OE (ge)wiht , of Gmc origin; form influenced by weigh 1 .