weigh

English

Alternative forms

• waye, weye (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English weghen, weȝen, from Old English wegan, from Proto-West Germanic *wegan, from Proto-Germanic *weganą (“to move, carry, weigh”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéǵʰeti, from *weǵʰ- (“to bring, transport”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: wā, IPA^(key): /weɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophones: way, wey, whey (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Verb

weigh (third-person singular simple present weighs, present participle weighing, simple past and past participle weighed)

1. (transitive) To determine the weight of an object.
2. (transitive) Often with "out", to measure a certain amount of something by its weight, e.g. for sale.

   He weighed out two kilos of oranges for a client.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To determine the intrinsic value or merit of an object, to evaluate.

   You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

   • 2011, Roy F. Baumeister, John Tierney, Willpower, →ISBN, page 103:

     As they started picking features, customers would carefully weigh the choices, but as decision fatigue set in they'd start settling for whatever the default option was.

4. (intransitive, figuratively, obsolete) To judge; to estimate.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. , part II (books IV–VI), London: [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 444:

     But ſhe thereof grew proud and inſolent, / That none ſhe worthie thought to be her fere, / But ſcornd them all, that loue vnto her ment; / Yet was ſhe lou’d of many a worthy pere, / Vnworthy ſhe to be belou’d ſo dere, / That could not weigh of worthineſſe aright.

5. (transitive) To consider a subject. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
6. (transitive, stative) To have a certain weight.

   I weigh ten and a half stone.

7. (intransitive) To have weight; to be heavy; to press down.
   • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 228, column 1:

     If they ſhall faile, I with mine Enemies
     Will triumph o're my perſon, which I waigh not,
     Being of thoſe Vertues vacant.

   • 1782, William Cowper, “The Yearly Distress or, Tithing-Time in Essex”, in Poems, London: J Johnson, , →OCLC:

     They only weigh the heavier.

8. (intransitive) To be considered as important; to have weight in the intellectual balance.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 154, column 1:

     Your vowes to her, and me, […] / Will euen weigh, and both as light as tales.

   • a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: , London: A and J Churchill, , published 1706, →OCLC, § 19, page 62:

     I anſwer, this is a good Objection, and ought to weigh with thoſe whoſe Reading is deſign’d for much Talk and little Knowledge, and I have nothing to ſay to it.

9. (transitive, nautical) To raise an anchor free of the seabed.
10. (intransitive, nautical) To weigh anchor.
    • 1624, Walter Russell, Anas Todkill, Thomas Momford, “The Accidents that hapned in the Discovery of the Bay of Chisapeack”, in John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: , London: I D and I H for Michael Sparkes, →OCLC, book 3; reprinted in The Generall Historie of Virginia, (Bibliotheca Americana), Cleveland, Oh.: The World Publishing Company, 1966, →OCLC, page 56:

      Towards the euening we wayed, & approaching the ſhoare [...], we landed where there lay a many of baskets and much bloud, but ſaw not a Salvage.

    • 1841, Edgar Allan Poe, A Descent into the Maelström:

      Here we used to remain until nearly time for slack-water again, when we weighed and made for home.

11. To bear up; to raise; to lift into the air; to swing up.
    • 1782, William Cowper, On the Loss of the Royal George:

      Weigh the vessel up.

12. (obsolete) To consider as worthy of notice; to regard.
    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

      Thinke you I weigh this treaſure more than you?
      Not all the Gold in Indias welthy armes,
      Shall buy the meaneſt ſouldier in my traine.

    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book VII, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 55, page 358:

      Them all, and all that ſhe ſo deare did way, […]

    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 137, column 1:

      Kat. So do not you, for you are a light Wench. / Roſ. Indeed I waigh not you, and therefore light. / Ka. You waigh me not, O that’s you care not for me.

Usage notes

• In commercial and everyday use, the term "weight" is usually used to mean mass, and the verb "to weigh" means "to determine the mass of" or "to have a mass of".

Derived terms

Related terms

• weight

Translations

Noun

weigh (plural weighs)

1. The act of weighing, of measuring the weight

   Give the sugar a quick weigh.

Derived terms