🪨 A heavy burden 🚢 Ship's carrying weight ⚖️ A test weight

deadweight

5.9

A heavy weight put on equipment to test or balance it

noun
/ˈdɛdˌweɪt/

Specialized

: peso muerto

"You'd have to be pretty strong to carry a deadweight in here."

Examples

The gym trainer recommended using a deadweight for strength training exercises.
The construction crew used a deadweight to test the strength of the new bridge.
We added a deadweight to the scale to ensure accurate measurements during the experiment.

Synonyms

weight

vsdeadweight

789 1.0

A measurement that shows how heavy something is

is a specific inert mass used for ballast or testing rather than a measure

dead weight

vsdeadweight

Offensive

22 4.4

A heavy object that is hard to carry, or a burden that slows progress

is a technical inert mass used to weigh down or test equipment not a burden

counterweight

vsdeadweight

10 5.3

A weight that balances another weight in machines like cranes or elevators

is an inert mass used for ballast or strength testing instead of balancing

deadman

vsdeadweight

Specialized

1 9.7

A buried object like a log or concrete block that holds something in place

is used loose as ballast or to test strength rather than buried

Antonyms

lightweight

36 2.8

Weighing less than other items of the same type

How Heavy

to ballast

Specialized

1 7.8

deadweight

Specialized

5.9

counterweight

10 5.3

weight

789 1.0

Surface Forms

deadweight singular

deadweights plural

Morphology

deadweight = dead + weight (transparent) = dead + weight

The sense refers directly to an inert or non-functioning heavy object used as ballast or test weight, which follows straightforwardly from 'dead' + 'weight'.

Etymology

Deadweight originally also meant a heavy, motionless load, made of dead ('not moving') and weight ('a heavy thing'). This image helps: a 'deadweight' is a heavy object you put on a machine or platform to test strength or to keep it steady.