weightlifter
Americannoun
Explanation
A weightlifter is an athlete who picks up and holds a very heavy barbell. Weightlifters compete to see which of them can heave the heaviest load. Weightlifters compete in many competitions, including the Olympics. These powerful athletes are able to lift enormous amounts of weight, often grunting loudly while they do so. Olympic weightlifters have three chances to lift a barbell weighing anywhere from 100 to 250 pounds. If you do bicep curls at home with 20-pound weights, you can still call yourself a weightlifter!
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.
Olympic team as a weightlifter, a sport in which she had risen to a world-class level in the women’s 63-kilogram division.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 29, 2026
And, no, he wasn’t a weightlifter, chainsaw juggler or a magician like the other familiar fixtures on the Venice boardwalk.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 8, 2025
To date, one openly transgender female athlete has competed in a women’s category at the Olympics: New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, at the Tokyo Games in the summer of 2021.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 8, 2025
The framework came in the aftermath of Tokyo 2020 when weightlifter Laurel Hubbard became the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics in a different gender category to that in which they were born.
From BBC • Aug. 4, 2024
I squat and stand, sure I look like a weightlifter at the Olympics as my legs wobble.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
