middleweight

[ mid-l-weyt ]

/ ˈmɪd lˌweɪt /

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noun

a boxer or other contestant intermediate in weight between a welterweight and a light heavyweight, especially a professional boxer weighing up to 160 pounds (72.5 kilograms).

adjective

Boxing. of or relating to middleweights: the middleweight division.

(of a horse, especially a hunter) able to carry up to 185 pounds (83.9 kilograms).

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Origin of middleweight

First recorded in 1870–75; middle + weight

Words nearby middleweight

Middleton, middletone, Middletown, middleware, middle watch, middleweight, Middle Welsh, Middle West, Middle Western, Middle Westerner, middle white

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use middleweight in a sentence

Then, in surprising findings in the early 2010s, Auger Observatory scientists inferred from the shapes of the air showers that ultrahigh-energy rays are mostly middleweight nuclei, such as carbon, nitrogen and silicon.
Cosmic Map of Ultrahigh-Energy Particles Points to Long-Hidden Treasures|Natalie Wolchover|April 27, 2021|Quanta Magazine
And for another fifteen years he had been the guiding brain to a fine Middleweight.
Vital Ingredient|Gerald Vance
Hickey was in the heavy middleweight class while he was still a bantam.
Skippy Bedelle|Owen Johnson
He looked like Pollyanna, after eight or ten shots at the middleweight title.
Occasion for Disaster|Gordon Randall Garrett

The middleweight thought that it was a joke on him, and was careful not to hit hard.
Famous Flyers|David Goodger (goodger@python.org)
And he knocked out the second middleweight, and the third middleweight.
Famous Flyers|David Goodger (goodger@python.org)

British Dictionary definitions for middleweight

middleweight

/ (ˈmɪdəlˌweɪt) /

noun

a professional boxer weighing 154–160 pounds (70–72.5 kg)
an amateur boxer weighing 71–75 kg (157–165 pounds)
(as modifier)a middleweight contest

a wrestler in a similar weight category (usually 172–192 pounds (78–87 kg))

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