Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
dead weight en · ADV
Pronunciation
Meanings
-
(of a shot in snooker or other cue sports) With just enough weight for a ball to drop into a pocket, or come to rest in a precisely determined position.
I potted a really difficult cut red into the middle pocket, dropping it in dead weight and finishing on the pink for a 59 break that pretty much got me there.
2017, Hector Nunns, The Crucible's Greatest Matches: Forty Years of Snooker's World Championship, →ISBN:From behind the Brown, aim to drop in dead-weight into the back of the pack.
2018, David Horrix, Complete Book of Snooker Shots, →ISBN:He rolled the red in dead weight, and now he's nicely on the blue.
I had no escape other than trying to roll off a side cushion, just ahead of the middle pocket, and lay on a red, dead weight, about a foot from the pocket in open play.
2015, Steve Davis, Interesting: My Autobiography, →ISBN:
Forms
dead weight en · NOUN
Pronunciation
Meanings
-
(countable, uncountable) Unremitting heavy weight that does not move.
His dead weight, as he abruptly collapses, pulls his lapels from her hands, reminding her to step back, off-balancing whoever is behind her, […]
2003, William Gibson, Pattern Recognition (Bigend cycle; book 1), New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 154:
-
(countable, uncountable) The largest weight of cargo a ship is able to carry; i.e., the weight of a ship when fully loaded minus its weight when empty.
-
(countable, uncountable) A dead load.
-
(countable, figuratively, uncountable) That which is useless or excess; that which slows something down.
Nobody could ever be bothered to imagine the Sand Snakes beyond personalized weaponry and fake-aggressive quips, none of which were very convincing, and now they don’t even register as dead weight.
2017 July 23, Brandon Nowalk, “The great game begins with a bang on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:They have the brains to rob a bank, but I guess only the rest of the gray matter is nothing but dead weight.
2015, Neville Ramdeholl, The Man Who Woke Up Dead:It was Ethel Churchill, dressed as a bride, and on her wedding morning, that Norbourne had seen. She had sought the summer-house for a few moments of quiet and solitude. There was a dead weight on her spirits, which she rather sought to indulge than to shake off.
1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Unavailing Regret”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 105:For ten minutes he waited there, jabbed at by his nerves, with every minute mounting up a dead weight of suspense.
1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 219:“Contrasted with that, the flat is a tick against my name – it makes him think I’m a safe bet, that I’m not going to be dead weight.”
2023 July 22, Barbara Speed, quoting Rosie (31), “‘We could soon see a Jane Austen-style marriage market’: how the housing crisis is turning modern dating on its head”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:She wants to shed the dead weight of so many stacks of old clutter.
-
(countable, uncountable) The total (unpowered) weight of a train to be propelled (or hauled) by the locomotive; another locomotive being hauled dead as part of the train is a dead weight.
Having dropped the coach, the trio returned with the Class 47 leading and the other two locomotives as dead weight.
2023 November 29, “Network News: Test runs for WCR fleet returnees”, in RAIL, number 997, page 24:
Forms
Translations (32)
fi taakka ((figuratively) useless, usually encumbering factor) · fi kuollut paino (dead weight) · pl ciężar własny (dead weight) · ja 死重 (dead weight) · ms bobot lupus (dead weight) · it peso morto (dead weight) · es peso muerto (dead weight) · hu kolonc ((figuratively) useless, usually encumbering factor) · tr ayak bağı ((figuratively) useless, usually encumbering factor) · nb dødvekt (dead weight) · bg безполезна маса ((figuratively) useless, usually encumbering factor) · de Totgewicht (dead weight) · vi của nợ ((figuratively) useless, usually encumbering factor) · sh balast (dead weight) · ru балла́ст ((figuratively) useless, usually encumbering factor) · sh mrtav teret (dead weight) · id berat mati (dead weight) · pl balast ((figuratively) useless, usually encumbering factor) · pt peso morto (dead weight) · tr köstek ((figuratively) useless, usually encumbering factor) · nn daudvekt (dead weight) · ja デッドウェイト (dead weight) · da dødvægt (dead weight) · sv dödvikt (dead weight) · fr poids mort ((figuratively) useless, usually encumbering factor) · fi painolasti ((figuratively) useless, usually encumbering factor) · nn dødvekt (dead weight) · fi riippakivi ((figuratively) useless, usually encumbering factor) · nb daudvekt (dead weight) · it peso morto ((figuratively) useless, usually encumbering factor) · fr poids mort (dead weight) · fr boulet ((figuratively) useless, usually encumbering factor)