different between weighty vs overweight

English

Alternative forms

• weightie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English weighti, weghti, wighti, equivalent to weight +? -y.

Cognate with Scots weichty, wechty, wichty, Saterland Frisian wichtich, West Frisian wichtich, Dutch wichtig, gewichtig, German wichtig, Danish vægtig, Swedish viktig.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?we?ti/
• Rhymes: -e?ti

Adjective

weighty (comparative weightier, superlative weightiest)

1. Heavy (“having a lot of weight”).
2. Important; serious; not trivial or petty.
3. Rigorous; severe; afflictive.

Derived terms

• weightily
• weightiness

Translations

English

Etymology

over- +? weight

Pronunciation

• (adjective):
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /???v??we?t/
  • (US) enPR: ?'v?r-w?t?, IPA^(key): /?o?v??we?t/
• (noun):
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /???v?we?t/
  • (US) enPR: ??v?r-w?t, IPA^(key): /?o?v?we?t/
• Rhymes: -e?t

Adjective

overweight (comparative more overweight, superlative most overweight)

1. (of a person) Having a higher weight, especially body fat, than what is generally considered healthy for a given body type and height.
2. (transport, law, of a vehicle) Weighing more than what is allowed for safety or legal commerce.
   • 1988, U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Gearing Up for Safety: Motor Carrier Safety in a Competitive Environment, ?ISBN, page 38,

     All States allow oversized vehicles if a special permit is obtained, although most States will grant overweight permits only for non-divisible loads.

   • 1993, Legacy in the Sand: Chemical Command in Operations Desert Shield & Desert Storm, ?ISBN, page 74,

     He got as far as the first weigh station, where troopers found his truck to be overweight and threatened to pull him off the road.

   • 1998, Collision of Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District Train 102, ?ISBN, page 48,

     Postaccident examination of the vehicle indicated, for example, that the driver had not adequately maintained his logbook and that his vehicle had been overweight for travel in Indiana.

3. (investment, finance, followed by a noun or prepositional phrase indicating a security or type of security) Having a portfolio relatively heavily invested in.

   Our portfolio is very overweight (in) Asian technology stocks.

Synonyms

• (of a person): fat, morbidly obese, obese, overnourished (often euphemistic)
• See also Thesaurus:obese

Antonyms

• underweight

Translations

Noun

overweight (countable and uncountable, plural overweights)

1. (uncountable, chiefly transport, law) An excess of weight.
   • 1976, Acts of the Legislature of Louisiana, volume 1, page 445:
2. (uncountable, healthcare) The condition of being overweight.

   • […] and shall pay not only the amount of the permit fee for overlength, overheight, overwidth or overweight as might be due, but an additional civil penalty of fifty dollars for the first offense, one hundred dollars for the second offense and one hundred fifty dollars for each additional offense; […]

   • 2007, Josephine Martin, Charlotte Oakley, Managing child nutrition programs: leadership for excellence, page 462:

     SCHOOL MEAL ISSUES FOR CHILDREN AT RISK FOR OVERWEIGHT

3. (countable) An overweight person.
4. (countable, investment, finance) A security or class of securities in which one has a heavy concentration.

   Apple common stock is one of our overweights.

Synonyms

• (of a person): adiposity, obesity

Antonyms

• underweight

Translations

Verb

overweight (third-person singular simple present overweights, present participle overweighting, simple past and past participle overweighted)

1. (transitive) To weigh down: to put too heavy a burden on.
2. (transitive) To place excessive weight or emphasis on; to overestimate the importance of. [from 17th c.]

Antonyms

• underweight