middleweight

[ mid-l-weyt ]

/ ˈmɪd lˌweɪt /

Save This Word!

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).

QUIZ

TAKE JOY IN ACING THIS QUIZ ON “PRIDE” SYNONYMS

Hold your head up high as you embark on this quiz that explores some of the synonyms and meanings of “pride.”

Question 1 of 7

What does "dignity" mean?

showing self-respect

treating others with kindness

acting selfishly

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

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. 2022

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