dead weight

or deadweight

noun

1. the heavy, unrelieved weight of anything inert:

   The dead weight of the bear's body was over 300 pounds.

2. a heavy or oppressive burden or responsibility.
3. the weight of a railroad car, truck, etc., as distinct from its load or contents.

dead weight

noun

1. a heavy weight or load
2. an oppressive burden; encumbrance
3. the difference between the loaded and the unloaded weights of a ship
4. another name for dead load
5. (in shipping) freight chargeable by weight rather than by bulk

Word History and Origins

Origin of dead weight¹

First recorded in 1650–60

Idioms and Phrases

A heavy or oppressive burden, as in That police record will be a dead weight on his career . This term alludes to the unrelieved weight of an inert mass. [Early 1700s]

Example Sentences

It’s dead weight that doesn’t store energy or produce a current itself.

From MIT Technology Review

The Chinook vibrated with deeper and deeper groans until its twin engines managed to heave up our dead weight.

From The Daily Beast

In contrast, if you have a 40-mile battery, for many shorter trips this investment is nothing but dead weight.

From The Daily Beast

But he is dead wrong to suggest that government is simply redistributive or worse, a dead-weight drag on the economy.

From The Daily Beast

We need to celebrate our gains and victories while we continue to put fire to the feet of dead weight.

From The Daily Beast

She estimated it may take at least two years to clear out dead weight from the department and make the staff functional once more.

From The Daily Beast

But for the most part even industry and endowment were powerless against the inertia of custom and the dead-weight of environment.

From Project Gutenberg

In the next few days they stowed some four thousand tons' dead weight into the Dimbula, and took her out from Liverpool.

From Project Gutenberg

The tackle, hooked on to the stern of the sunken yacht, was at first as so much dead weight on their hands.

From Project Gutenberg

But I tell you it was hard work getting him up, he was such a dead weight!

From Project Gutenberg

Each man gazed on the other, trying to find some word that might be fitting, but each muted by the dead weight of half a century.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• barrier
• bottleneck
• burden
• defect
• deterrent
• difficulty
• disadvantage
• drawback
• flaw
• handicap
• hazard
• hitch
• hurdle
• inhibition
• obstacle
• red tape
• restriction
• setback
• snag
• stumbling block