dead weight
22
4.4
- noun
- /dɛd weɪt/
- Offensive
:
lastre
- Adams had been his cIerk for over 25 years, and Lamb had been carrying him... ...even though he'd been a dead weight to the firm.
- the own dead weight
So I'm carrying that dead weight, right?
- So I'm carrying that dead weight, right?
- I don't know how much that weighs, but it is a bit of dead weight, you might argue.
- Otherwise you're just either with an enemy or or dead weight.
- Simon didn't even notice when she went limp, her dead weight dragging him to the floor, his hands gripping her shoulder, clenching and unclenching as he drank.
- She's, you know, laying down the emotional fucking dead weight.
Examples
-
Carrying the injured hiker was dead weight that slowed down the rescue team.
-
Sometimes the dead weight has to be cut for the ship to sail.
Blog text (21) -
Look, we're not just a bunch of dead weight.
-
You point out that cutting the dead weight is important, and it is.
Blog text (1) -
I say we ditch all this dead weight and travel light.
-
The company can't afford to have dead weight like him on the payroll.
-
The GoPro camera spent the three weeks of our trip basically serving as dead weight in our luggage.
Blog text (9) -
You're carrying dead weight, Maxie.
-
They're not bringing in any big-ticket items until Bay and Santana's dead weight is off the books.
Blog text (1) -
Piero desperately tries to get away, dragging the dead weight of Carlo behind him.
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
482
3.4
A heavy load or something that causes worry and difficulty
91
4.1
A heavy burden of worry or responsibility
5
8.1
A heavy burden that makes life hard
2
5.8
A person or thing that makes work slower
2
8.1
Something that makes life or an activity harder
Something that makes a task or journey harder
Antonyms
How Burdensome
- Informal
6
8.4
- Offensive
22
4.4
482
3.4
21
5.7
107
4.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense of an inert or burdensome load is directly derivable from combining 'dead' (inactive, not functioning) with 'weight' (heaviness/burden). Both the literal and figurative readings (a heavy object or a person/responsibility that hinders progress) follow a transparent compositional pattern that a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer.
Etymology
Dead weight may come from the image of trying to carry someone or something that gives no help: the dead part shows it does not help you and the weight is heavy and hard to move, so it slows you down. So, it now means 'a heavy object, person, or responsibility that makes progress harder'.