dead load

American

noun

Engineering.

load11

dead load British

noun

Also called: dead weight. the intrinsic invariable weight of a structure, such as a bridge. It may also include any permanent loads attached to the structure Compare live load

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of dead load

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

dead load

Can your roof support the extra dead load of the panels?

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 13, 2022

The distribution of total shear, due to a dead load wl per ft. run and a travelling load wl per ft. run, is shown in fig.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" by Various

L = length of any bay of top flange. l = length of any diagonal. w = dead load per bay of girder. w¹= live load per bay of girder.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 483, April 4, 1885 by Various

I told the Commission that we were using higher unit stresses than any practice has established, and we've put the dead load at a low estimate.

From Alexander's Bridge by Willa Sibert Cather

The effect of dead load on a wooden beam may be two or more times that produced by an immediate load of the same weight.

From The Mechanical Properties of Wood Including a Discussion of the Factors Affecting the Mechanical Properties, and Methods of Timber Testing by Samuel J. Record

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023