weigh

Formsweighs, weighing, weighed

Pluralweighs

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To measure how heavy an object is, typically using a scale or balance.

   Jewelers weigh each gemstone to the nearest fraction of a gram.

   He weighed the package twice before mailing it.

   Note

   The everyday sense rests on an older idea of motion. Old English wegan goes back to a Germanic verb meaning "to move, carry, weigh" and a root meaning "to bring, transport". Lifting a load and judging its heaviness were once a single act, which is why the same verb can also raise a ship's anchor. The past tense and past participle are both weighed.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To have a particular weight.

   An adult elephant can weigh over six tons.

   The manuscript weighed nearly two kilograms.

   Note

   A linking verb that takes a measurement rather than an object: I weigh ten and a half stone. Because it describes a state, it resists the passive, and nobody says that ten stone is weighed by me. Compare the act of measuring, where I am weighing the flour is perfectly natural. The same verb shifts from doing something to simply being a certain weight.

3. 3
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To judge the value or merit of something through careful thought.

   A good editor weighs every argument an author makes.

   Jurors must weigh the evidence presented at trial.

   Similarassess, evaluate, consider, judge

   Note

   The scale survives as a metaphor here. You can still hear it in "weighed in the balance and found wanting", where a person is judged like goods on a balance. In everyday prose the usual objects are things to choose between: options, choices, evidence. Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney's Willpower (2011) sets careful weighing of choices against its opposite, settling for the default.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To measure out a set amount of something by its weight, often for sale.

   The pharmacist weighed out the exact dose of powder.

   Vendors weigh out grain into sacks at the market.

   Similarmeasure, portion

   Note

   Adding out turns finding a weight into producing one. With the plain verb you start from an object and learn what it weighs. With weigh out you start from an amount, such as two kilos of oranges, and measure off exactly that much, which is why selling is its natural setting. The object of the verb is the quantity, not the thing placed on the scale.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To think carefully about a matter or subject.

   The committee weighs each proposal before voting.

   Scientists weigh competing theories against the available data.

   Similarconsider, ponder, contemplate, examine

6. 6
   verbintransitive

   To carry importance or influence when something is being judged.

   Past convictions weigh heavily in sentencing decisions.

   His endorsement weighs more with voters than any advertisement.

   Similarcount, matter, tell

   Note

   Importance is pictured as weight on a mental scale, and the construction worth knowing is weigh with. John Locke writes of an objection that "ought to weigh with" certain readers, meaning it should influence them. Shakespeare turns the image around in A Midsummer Night's Dream, where two sets of vows "weigh even" because both are as light as tales.

7. 7
   verbintransitive

   To have heaviness; to be heavy and press down.

   The waterlogged beams weighed on the supporting wall.

   Wet sails weigh heavily and strain the rigging.

   Similarpress, bear

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To raise a ship's anchor clear of the seabed.

   The bosun ordered the men to weigh the anchor before the tide turned.

   They weighed both anchors and let the current carry them out.

   Similarraise, hoist, lift

   Oppositedrop, lower

   Note

   A sailor's verb that keeps the oldest meaning alive. The Germanic root behind the measuring sense meant "to move, carry", and here the verb still means lifting, not measuring. The object is the anchor, and the set phrase is weigh anchor, usually with no article. You weigh it to free the ship, not to learn how heavy it is.

9. 9
   verbintransitive

   To raise anchor in preparation for sailing.

   The convoy weighed at first light and stood out to sea.

   They weigh at the turn of the tide.

   Note

   Here the anchor drops out of the sentence. The crew or the ship simply weighs, meaning it raises anchor and gets under way. Edgar Allan Poe writes "we weighed and made for home" in A Descent into the Maelström (1841). Walter Russell, Anas Todkill and Thomas Momford, writing in 1624, spell the same verb wayed.

10. 10
    verbtransitive

    To hoist something up, lifting it into the air or swinging it upward.

    Sailors weigh the spar up and lash it to the mast.

    The derrick weighed the timber slowly skyward.

    Similarhoist, raise, lift

    Oppositelower

    Note

    Lifting in general extends the motion the verb began with, and it usually comes with up. William Cowper's On the Loss of the Royal George (1782) calls to "weigh the vessel up", raising a whole ship rather than just its anchor. Outside verse and seamanship, raise or hoist is the safer modern choice.

11. 11
    nouncountable

    The act of weighing something; the measuring of its weight.

    A final weigh confirmed the shipment matched the invoice.

    The official recorded each weigh in the market ledger.

    Note

    A short noun that lives in the phrase give something a weigh: give the sugar a quick weigh. Like a quick look or a quick stir, it packages the verb as a single brief action. The plural is weighs.

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