Weigh
Pronunciation
- enPR: wÄ, IPA: /weɪ/
- Homophones: way, wey, whey in accents with the wine-whine merger
Origin
From Old English wegan, from Proto-Germanic *weganą, from Proto-Indo-European *wéǵʰe-, *weǵʰ-. Cognate with Scots wey or weich, Dutch wegen, German wiegen, wägen, Danish veje.
Full definition of weigh
Verb
- (transitive) To determine the weight of an object.
- (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.
- (transitive, figuratively) To determine the intrinsic value or merit of an object, to evaluate.You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
- (intransitive, figuratively, obsolete) To judge; to estimate.
- Spensercould not weigh of worthiness aright
- (transitive) To consider a subject.
- (transitive) To have a certain weight.I weigh ten and a half stone.
- (intransitive) To have weight; to be heavy; to press down.
- CowperThey only weigh the heavier.
- ShakespeareCleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart. - (intransitive) To be considered as important; to have weight in the intellectual balance.
- ShakespeareYour vows to her and me ... will even weigh.
- John LockeThis objection ought to weigh with those whose reading is designed for much talk and little knowledge.
- (transitive, nautical) To raise an anchor free of the seabed.
- (intransitive, nautical) To weigh anchor.
- 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 91:Towards the evening we wayed, and 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.’
- To bear up; to raise; to lift into the air; to swing up.
- CowperWeigh the vessel up.
- (obsolete) To consider as worthy of notice; to regard.
- ShakespeareI weigh not you.
- Spenserall that she so dear did weigh