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lightweight

[lahyt-weyt]
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adjective
  1. light in weight.
  2. being lighter in weight, texture, etc., than another item or object of identical use, quality, or function: a lightweight topcoat; a lightweight alloy for ship construction.
  3. without seriousness of purpose; trivial or trifling: lightweight reading.
  4. of or relating to a lightweight: He's the new lightweight contender.
  5. (of a horse, especially a hunter) able to carry up to 165 pounds (75 kg).
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noun
  1. a person of less than average weight.
  2. Informal. a person who is of little influence, importance, or effect.
  3. a boxer or other contestant intermediate in weight between a featherweight and a welterweight, especially a professional boxer weighing between 126 and 135 pounds (56.7–61 kg).
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Origin of lightweight

First recorded in 1765–75; light2 + weight
Related formsul·tra·light·weight, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for lightweight

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • I should like him to be a lightweight, so as to be able to ride with me.

  • He entered in the lightweight class in the Harvard Gymnasium, March 22, 1879.

    Theodore Roosevelt

    Edmund Lester Pearson

  • At any rate our lightweight is one point in our favour, and another is our light-hands.

  • He was a football player and a lightweight boxer of no mean ability.

    The Rope of Gold

    Roy J. Snell

  • Many in fact would have had no hesitation in classing him as a lightweight.

British Dictionary definitions for lightweight

lightweight

adjective
  1. of a relatively light weight
  2. not serious; trivial
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noun
  1. a person or animal of a relatively light weight
    1. a professional boxer weighing 130–135 pounds (59–61 kg)
    2. an amateur boxer weighing 57–60 kg (126–132 pounds)
    3. (as modifier)the lightweight contender
  3. a wrestler in a similar weight category (usually 115–126 pounds (52–57 kg))
  4. informal a person of little importance or influence
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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

Word Origin and History for lightweight

adj.

also light-weight, 1773 in horse-racing, also in pugilism; from light (adj.1) + weight. Figurative sense of "inconsequential" first attested 1809.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper