weigh

UK/weɪ/US/weɪ/

verbB14 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,054 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: weighed, weighing, weighs

To weigh something is to find out how heavy it is: you put it on the scales and read the number. Flour in a bowl, a suitcase at the check-in desk, a baby at the clinic.

Weigh also means to have that heaviness, as in the parcel weighs two kilos. Watch the pair carefully. Weigh is the verb and weight is the noun, so it is what is your weight, never what is your weigh. Then there is the thinking sense: you weigh your options, weigh the risks, weigh up whether to take the job, holding two things against each other like a pair of scales. Something can weigh on you as well, pressing on your mind, and a ship weighs anchor when it lifts it to leave.

Definitions of weigh

1verbparticularTo have a particular heaviness.B1~48%
“My suitcase already weighs twenty kilos, so I can't add anything else.”
2verbweighTo measure how heavy something or someone is.B1~48%
“The nurse weighed the baby before the appointment.”
3verbconsiderTo think carefully about something, holding one thing against another.B2~2%
“She weighed the offer for a week before saying no.”
synonyms: consider, assess
4verbpressTo press on someone's mind.C1~2%
“The argument weighed on him for days.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 12 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Phrases it lives in

weigh your words — choose what you say with care
weigh anchor — lift the anchor and set sail

Where it comes from

Weigh goes back through Old English wegan to Proto-Germanic wegana, meaning to move, carry or weigh, and further to a Proto-Indo-European root wegh-, to bring or transport. Carrying came first and measuring the load came after. The same root gave English wagon, way, wedge and vector, every one of them about things being moved along.

Proto-Indo-European
*weǵʰ-
Middle English
weyen
English, today
weigh

Built from

*weǵʰ- · Proto-Indo-European — to bring, transport

From Middle English weyen. From Middle English weyen, 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”). 2

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Verbs, A Man Called Ove, Numbers & Measurement

First appears in chapter 5 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

weigh in the wild

Alkaline AAA batteries weigh around 11.5 grams, while primary lithium AAA batteries weigh about 7.6 g.
AAA battery
Many jurisdictions employ the use of portable scales, allowing weigh stations to be set up at any point.
Weigh station
By weighing the vehicle both empty and when loaded, the load carried by the vehicle can be calculated.
Truck scale
The Waag ("weigh house") is a 15th-century building on Nieuwmarkt square in Amsterdam.
Waag, Amsterdam
The size of the stone can also be quite varied: scholars' rocks can weigh hundreds of pounds or less than one pound.
Gongshi

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

Definitions of weigh

1verbparticularTo have a particular heaviness.B1~48%

“My suitcase already weighs twenty kilos, so I can't add anything else.”

2verbweighTo measure how heavy something or someone is.B1~48%

“The nurse weighed the baby before the appointment.”

3verbconsiderTo think carefully about something, holding one thing against another.B2~2%

“She weighed the offer for a week before saying no.”

synonyms: consider, assess

4verbpressTo press on someone's mind.C1~2%

“The argument weighed on him for days.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 12 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.