dead weight, n. & adj. meanings, etymology and more (2025)

Contents

1. noun

   1. 1. 1.a.

         1605–

         A heavy or oppressive burden; a hindrance, an impediment. Frequently with on, upon.

         1. 1605

            How thou oughtest to be troubled when thou art pressed, and oppressed with a dead weight of sinnes?

            T. Playfere, Sick-mans Couch 41

         2. 1720

            The Scots..were always the dead Weight upon the King's Affairs.

            D. Defoe, Memoirs of Cavalier 300

         3. 1789

            His character is a dead weight upon him.

            A. Young, Journal 17 June in Travels France (1792) i. 113

         4. 1822

            We not only deter the student from the attempt, but lay a dead-weight upon the imagination.

            W. Hazlitt, Conversat. Lords in Table-talk (1852) 242

         5. 1876

            It was extremely exhilarating..to find himself free..of the dead weight of debt.

            F. E. Trollope, Charming Fellow vol. III. xviii. 229

         6. 1918

            The national debt is a dead weight on a nation's progress.

            Provide Revenue for War Purposes: Hearings before Comm. on Finance (U.S. Senate, 65th Congr., 2nd Sess., H.R. 12863 29

         7. 1992

            Another dead weight on the economy is escalating health-care costs.

            Atlanta Journal & Constitution (Nexis) 25 October r1

         8. 2022

            This parliamentary election offers the Lebanese people a real chance to cast off the dead weight of the past.

            Jerusalem Post (Nexis) 29 April

         the world action or operation difficulty hindrance types or manners of hindrance [nouns] encumberment burdensomeness a burden

         1. burdenOld English–

            figurative. A load of labour, duty, responsibility, blame, sin, sorrow, etc. Cf. white man's burden, n. Now historical.

         2. packa1325–

            figurative and in figurative contexts.

         3. chargea1350–

            figurative. A trouble, inconvenience, hardship, etc., that a person must bear; (also) a source of trouble or inconvenience; a burden. Now archaic.

         4. burnc1375–1880

            = burden, n.

         5. fardelc1380–

            figurative. esp. A burden or load of sin, sorrow, etc.

         6. weightc1380–

            A burden (of responsibility, obligation, suffering, years, etc.).

         7. carriagea1556

            A load or burden carried by a person, animal, vehicle, etc. In later use with preceding modifying word, as in heavy carriage, light carriage…

         8. load1600–

            figurative. A burden (of affliction, sin, responsibility, etc.); something which weighs down, oppresses, or impedes. Esp. in (to take) a load off…

         9. dead weight1605–

            A heavy or oppressive burden; a hindrance, an impediment. Frequently with on, upon.

         10. taxa1628–

             figurative. Something compared to a tax in its incidence, obligation, or burdensomeness; an oppressive or burdensome charge, obligation, or duty…

         11. overpoise1697–1877

             The action or fact of outweighing something; a thing which overbalances or weighs more than something; a thing which weighs something down. Also figur…

         12. backload1725–

             An amount that can be carried on the back.

         13. millstone1787

             figurative. A heavy and inescapable burden or responsibility; esp. in a millstone round one's neck.

         14. tin kettle1796–1923

             Extended and allusive uses. Something that continues to punish, persecute, or annoy a person relentlessly. Obsolete.

         15. nightmare-weight1847–71

         16. ball and chain1855–

             figurative. A restriction, a burden, esp. a financial one.

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      2. 1.b.

         1844–

         A person regarded as burdensome, unproductive, inefficient, or useless, esp. within an organization or business.

         1. 1844

            They are ‘dead weights’, too intolerable to be borne, and Odd-Fellowship would be a thousand times more useful and valuable if they should forsake it entirely.

            P. Donaldson in Odd-fellows' Offering 155

         2. 1881

            Their share of responsibility is thus thrust upon lazy or ignorant souls who had otherwise existed as opinionless dead weights.

            19th Century September 341

         3. 1978

            The last are the fillers, the dead-weights whom the whips draft on to the committees to make up numbers.

            Economist (Nexis) 25 November 126

         4. 2007

            Bringing a deadweight up to speed... If simply doing their job for them..isn't feasible, you'll have to take one for the team.

            New York Magazine 9 April 59/1

      3. 1.c.

         1856–

         As a mass noun: people or things regarded as unproductive, useless, or as an impediment to progress or activity; something that causes inefficiency, esp. within an organization or business.

         1. 1856

            To get rid of an error was to get rid of dead weight; and, when traditions are taken away, it was so much clear gain to our cause, which would go on.

            Bible Defender 26 January 57

         2. 1881

            A man who desires to make a living by his business, and get on in the world, cannot afford to carry dead weight.

            Metal Worker 7 May 20/2

         3. 1917

            No member getting a success which forces the team to carry him as dead weight, not to say as grit in its running gear.

            American Journal of Sociology vol. 23 151

         4. 1972

            After the 1963 election of the new integrationist commission president, there was a tendency to drop dead weight from the board, regardless of the individual's position or status.

            H. L. Molotch, Managed Integration ii. iv. 71

         5. 2013

            New executives were hired..to shake up the company, get rid of dead weight, and prepare the company for sale.

            K. Moore, Gift from Journey ii. 35

         6. 2017

            I can't just be dead weight on the team... Every point counts.

            University Wire: Oberlin Review (Nexis) 22 September

   2. 1. 2.a.

         1606–

         The weight of something which does not move by itself; a heavy, inert weight.

         In quot. 1785: a feeling of heavy weight or pressure.

         1. 1606

            Such a haples Shore: As beares the dead waight of so deare a Sister.

            G. Chapman, Monsieur D'Oliue ii. i. sig. C2

         2. 1615

            A drawing and an haling, as is the pulling of a beast, or rather a dead waight out of a pit.

            E. Elton, Expos. Epist. St. Paule to Colossians 151

         3. 1660

            When the Sucker came to be moved onely with a dead weight or pressure.

            R. Boyle, New Experiments Physico-mechanicall xxxiii. 238

         4. 1702

            The Moving Cause, as Mens Hands, Horses, or Dead Weight.

            T. Savery, Miners Friend 81

         5. 1785

            The patient complaining at the same time of a lump or dead weight, as he termed it, in his inside.

            C. Thomas in Medical Communications vol. 2 79

         6. 1844

            Mrs. Gamp..forced him backwards down the stairs by the mere oppression of her dead-weight.

            C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit xlvi. 533

         7. 1857

            The more athletic games of running, leaping, hurdle-racing,..and lifting dead weights, are pursued with such success.

            Quarterly Review April 205/1

         8. 1962

            The Suffolk horse's ability at a dead-pull, or pulling of a dead weight.

            G. E. Evans, Ask Fellows who cut Hay (ed. 2) xvi. 125

         9. 2011

            Afterward, she and Liam walked the old man back across the park; he leaned on her, stumbling on the tussocky grass, making her feel his dead weight.

            T. Hadley in New Yorker 7 November 70/2

         the world matter properties of materials weight or relative heaviness [nouns] constant or invariable

         1. dead weight1606–

            The weight of something which does not move by itself; a heavy, inert weight.

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      2. 2.b.

         1607–

         Horse Racing and Equestrianism. Additional weight (chiefly in the form of lead pads) carried when a jockey or rider is underweight for a race or competition.

         1. 1607

            To carrie dead weight, as I haue seene manie riders doe, either about their wastes, or in the pockets of their breeches, it must needs be verie vilde, and cannot chuse but beat a man mightily, both vpon the thighs and bodie.

            G. Markham, Cavelarice vi. 41

         2. 1735

            The rider, if he be not weight himself, must carry the dead weight somewhere about him.

            Sportsman's Dictionary vol. I. at Hunting-horse

         3. 1829

            Every trainer knows the disadvantage to a horse, that from the lightness of his rider, has to carry dead weight.

            J. Lawrence, Horse Varieties & Uses xlii. 291

         4. 2021

            Carrying so much dead weight could have been a liability, but experts remarked that it was better for a horse to have a balanced, quiet, light rider perched over the withers of a horse with the dead weight not moving.

            I. F. Griffiths, Hills around Me vi. 70

         horse racing

   3. 1. 3.a.

         ?1641–

         Heavy goods transported by a ship or vehicle, typically carried at a lower rate than light goods; cf. mortcharge n. Also: heavy cargo carried by a ship as ballast. Now chiefly as a modifier in deadweight cargo, deadweight freight, etc.

         1. ?1641

            For ilk tune of moirtchairge as madir and allum or ony uther deid weght.

            in J. S. Dobie, Muniments Irvine (1891) vol. II. 51

         2. 1773

            Iron Kintledge, taken out and brought Home as dead Weight.

            5th Rep. Comm. Secrecy State E. India Company 279

         3. 1777

            So large a Ship must have at least 150 Tons dead weight in her Hold to enable her to carry sail.

            J. Williams, Letter 4 November in B. Franklin, Papers (1986) vol. XXV. 140

         4. 1855

            An average between timber ships and iron ships, light cargo and dead weight, as the basis of register tonnage.

            Rep. 24th Meeting Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 1854 155

         5. 1932

            The rest of the cargo was to consist mostly of light stuff, and..with so much dead-weight in the bottom, the ship would be very laboursome at sea, and bound to roll very heavily.

            Chamber's Journal October 773/1

         6. 2005

            Cargo stowing at less than 1.2m³/tonne..is likely to be rated as deadweight cargo.

            D. J. House, Cargo Work for Maritime Operations (ed. 7) i. 3

         nautical

      2. 3.b.

         1725–

         The total weight of cargo, stores, etc., which a ship carries or can carry. Cf. deadweight tonnage n.

         1. 1725

            So large are those Barges, that some of them..bring a Thousand, or Twelve hundred Quarters of Malt at a Time, which, according to the ordinary Tonnage in the Freight of other Vessels, is from a Hundred, to an Hundred and Twenty Ton, dead Weight.

            D. Defoe, Tour Great Britain vol. II. i. 59

         2. 1836

            She would be able to carry about 700 tons dead weight.

            Rep. Measuring Tonnage of Ships App. 33 in Parliamentary Papers (H.C. 43) vol. XXII. 803

         3. 1883

            The carrying power of the ships in tons of dead-weight.

            Harper's Magazine August 442/1

         4. 1924

            Orders have now been placed by the United States Shipping Board for 18 Diesel engines to be installed in vessels of about 8,000 tons deadweight.

            Times Trade & Engin. Supplement 29 November 250/3

         5. 2014

            Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard..has two inclined building slips..to construct ships and vessels with deadweights of up to 105,000 tonnes.

            Ukraine Business Weekly (Nexis) 19 November

      3. 3.c.

         1846–

         The intrinsic weight of a structure or vehicle, excluding the weight of occupants or goods; dead load. Cf. dead adj. A.V.37.

         1. 1846

            In every ordinary train the dead weight of the engine and tender..are fixed figures.

            Railway Reg. vol. 3 265

         2. 1849

            As the small blood-horse can do more work than the heavy cart-horse, in proportion to his size, so will the engine working at high pressure produce better results by being rid of dead weight.

            Railway Rec. 22 December 1147/3

         3. 1881

            The saving in dead weight, by this improvement alone, is from 10 to 16 per cent.

            J. Lubbock in Nature No. 618. 412

         4. 1919

            The proportion of dead weight to freight in these trains is very high.

            A. Marshall, Industry & Trade vol. II. iii. iv. 464

         5. 1947

            Highway trucks and trailers are being made of aluminium to cut dead weight and increase pay loads.

            Interior Department Appropriation Bill for 1948: Hearings before Subcomm. of Comm. on Appropriations Part 2 (U.S. House of Representatives, 80th Congr., 1st Sess.) 52

         6. 2003

            Active loads..have to be balanced by the resistance of the structure and these, together with the dead weight of the structure, have to be passed on, and balanced by, the opposed resistance of the soil below the foundations.

            B. M. Feilden, Conservation Hist. Buildings (ed. 3) i. ii. 25/1

   4. 4.

      1785–

      The weight of an animal after it has been slaughtered and prepared as a carcass; the estimated weight of saleable meat that an animal will yield. Cf. dressed weight n., live weight n.

      1. 1785

         The mere increase of dead weight is not the whole profit.

         Transactions of Society Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, & Commerce vol. 3 47

      2. 1841

         The average deadweight of the South Down wether varies from 8 to 11 stones.

         Penny Cyclopaedia vol. XXI. 357/2

      3. 1902

         The estimated dead weight of the sheep imported on the hoof for slaughter.

         Encyclopædia Britannica vol. XXV. 186/1

      4. 1986

         Classes. Pork pigs (UK) Liveweight of 54–63 kg at 14–18 weeks. Deadweight of 39–45 kg with a killing-out percentage of 70–72.

         J. F. Gracey, Meat Hygiene (ed. 8) i. 16/2

      5. 2020

         They produce delicious tender meat with a very distinct flavour and can finish on a forage-based system in 20-24 months with a deadweight of 220-260kg.

         S. McCallum, Rare British Breeds 101

   5. 5.

      1822–50

      †With reference to the Dead-weight Annuity Act of 1822 (3 George IV, c. 51): an advance made by the Bank of England to the Government for the half-pay and pensions of retired Army and Navy officers (after the end of the Napoleonic Wars), repaid by an annuity which ceased in 1867. Obsolete.

      In earliest use as a modifier: see quot. 1822, where the sense of dead-weight people appears to be people receiving pensions funded by the dead weight.

      1. 1822

         The crew appears to have consisted of parsons, dead-weight people, placemen, pensioners and taxgatherers.

         Cobbett's Weekly Political Register 2 November 269

      2. 1823

         The six hundred millions of Debt and the hundred and fifty millions of dead-weight.

         W. Cobbett, Rural Rides in Cobbett's Weekly Political Register 13 September 658

      3. 1826

         The year 1822, when Mr. Vansittart brought before parliament the notable expedient to pay for the dead-weight... The country were induced to believe, that in forty-four years the whole of the dead-weight would be annihilated by the gradual decrement, by death, of the persons to whom the allowances out of it were payable.

         J. Hume in Hansard vol. XVI. 184

      4. 1827

         Placed on the superannuation or dead weight list.

         Gentleman's Magazine vol. 97 ii. 13

      5. 1850

         At the last meeting of the proprietors of the Bank of England, Mr. De Winton said he should like to know how much of the ‘dead weight’ had been paid.

         Bankers' Magazine December 750

      finance

      society trade and finance management of money insolvency indebtedness [nouns] a debt national or public debt

      1. National Debt1653–

         Phrases. National Debt: a debt owing by a sovereign state to private individuals who have advanced money to it for the public needs; esp. that main…

      2. sovereign debt1766–

         The total amount of money which a country's government owes to domestic and foreign lenders (through various financial instruments, such as bonds…

      3. dead weight1822–50

         With reference to the Dead-weight Annuity Act of 1822 (3 George IV, c. 51): an advance made by the Bank of England to the Government for the…

      4. deadweight debt1823–

         †a. Debt incurred by the Dead-weight Annuity Act of 1822 (see dead weight, n. A.5) (obsolete); b. debt incurred without leading to the creation of…

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2. adjective

   1. 1.

      1854–

      Designating a safety valve kept closed by a heavy weight; esp. designating such a valve used in a stationary boiler, opening when steam pressure is greater than the weight on the valve.

      1. 1854

         Mr. Michael Todd, millwright and engineer, stated that on the 10th December last, the three-inch safety-valve was delivered from his establishment at Mr. Williamson's, and put on instead of the dead weight valve.

         Manchester Examiner & Times 29 July 7/1

      2. 1904

         Dead weight safety valve.

         G. F. Goodchild & C. F. Tweney, Technological & Scientific Dictionary 151/2

      3. 1930

         Should the steam stop valve on the boiler be closed..the deadweight valve is opened.

         Engineering 10 October 461/2

      4. 2007

         Dead weight and springloaded safety valves can be balanced by fitting a bellows or a sliding seal.

         B. Nesbitt, Handbook Valves & Actuators i. 4/1

   2. 2.

      1855–

      Of an animal: slaughtered and prepared as a carcass; sold or bought as saleable meat. Also: designating the price for a prepared animal carcass. Cf. sense A.4.

      1. 1855

         Lot 2 has made an increase, over lot 1, of 1 qr. 7lb. live weight, and 1 cwt. 1 qr. 17lb. dead weight, beef.

         Transactions Highland & Agricultural Society Scotland July 1853–Mar.1855 175

      2. 1889

         The Dublin Farmer's Gazette..gives quotations per cwt. for live-weight of first, second, and third qualities of bullocks and heifers, and in the same table adds the dead-weight prices for the three qualities.

         Journal of Royal Agricultural Society 2nd Series vol. 25 448

      3. 1952

         A broiler..is a young bird, weighing about 3 lb dead weight, which has been raised on a new system.

         Daily Telegraph 4 December 5/3

      4. 1992

         Deadweight cattle prices are based on the new national carcass dressing specification.

         Farmers Weekly 14 August 31/1 (table)

      5. 2023

         As well as selling cattle deadweight, the family are also well known in the commercial showring.

         Press & Journal (Aberdeen) (Nexis) 4 February 8

   3. 1. 3.a.

         1860–

         Esp. of an expense, a cost, etc.: fixed, not variable; caused by inefficiency. Cf. deadweight debt n., deadweight loss n.

         1. 1860

            As the Managers of the Company could not control rates, the policy has been to increase the quantity carried; for the ‘dead weight expenses’, or those expenses which belong to all traffic whether great or small, are then distributed over a greater quantity.

            Railroad Rec. (Cincinnati) 30 August 330/1

         2. 1884

            Each [manufactory] has its ‘dead-weight expenses’ (such as rent, taxes, insurance, depreciation, and general expenses which cannot be charged direct), and each will have some unproductive labour to deal with.

            A. F. Notley, Commerc. & School Book-keeping 76

         3. 1954

            To industry, idle or excess capacity and long inventories are to be avoided like the plague. Such dead-weight costs, eat voraciously into profit.

            Department Def. Appropriations 1955: Hearings before Subcomm. Comm. Appropriations (U.S. House of Representatives, 83rd Congr., 2nd Sess.) 703

         4. 2019

            Bureaucratic overhead (managers and sales people) has doubled in the electricity industry since privatisation, resulting in deadweight costs of a billion or more dollars per year.

            Canberra Times (Nexis) 23 February 10

      2. 3.b.

         1889–

         Useless, unproductive; inefficient, or causing inefficiency.

         1. 1889

            The East Saginaw board of education are fortunate in having a committee with pluck enough to drop dead-weight teachers.

            Michigan School Moderator 5 September 5/3

         2. 1987

            Most sales managers are loath to carry out one of their most basic cost-cutting duties: firing deadweight staff.

            Business Secrets vi. 34/1

         3. 2011

            Unifying the city and prefectural governments would cut costs, remove deadweight bureaucracy and allow a more coherent response to the region's economic challenges.

            Financial Times (Nexis) 24 November

   4. 4.

      1927–

      Esp. of a person: very heavy and motionless.

      Sometimes approaching adverbial use with the sense ‘heavily; as a heavy, inert weight’.

      1. 1927

         I caught the limp figure and tried to make it sit up, but it is hard to lift a dead-weight body.

         True Detective Myst. July 82/3

      2. 1974

         Bix lurched towards me, mumbling something, staggered and fell deadweight in my arms.

         R. M. Sudhalter & P. R. Evans, Bix (1975) xxiii. 329

      3. 1982

         He jumps out of bed, pulling Sheila, deadweight Sheila, behind him.

         S. Markman in Everyday Matters 2

      4. 2019

         He had an arm under him and was completely dead weight and semi-conscious at this time.

         Nottingham Post (Nexis) 16 August 14

dead weight typically occurs about 0.4 times per million words in modern written English.

dead weight is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

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