heavy-weight
Also heavyweight.
a. A person or animal of more than the average weight; spec. a jockey, etc., of more than the average weight; a professional boxer weighing over 12 st. 7 lb., or transf., a horse which carries more than the average weight.
| 1857 G. Lawrence Guy Liv. iii. 17 The horses he kept were well up to his weight, and he stood A 1. in Jem Hill's estimation, as the best heavy-weight that had come out of Oxford for many a day. 1877 ‘Pugnus’ Hist. Prize Ring ii. 104 For such a heavy weight, Hooper had a particularly small foot, of which he was very proud. 1888 W. Day Horse Index 447 Heavy-weight carriers, how to breed. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 691/1 Heavy weights [amateur] to be over 11 stone 4 lb. 1889 [see feather-weight 3]. 1910 [see welter weight 2]. 1917 Sat. Rev. 10 Nov. 373/2 Thanks to the muscle, he has become a champion heavy-weight. 1928 [see cruiser 4]. 1954 F. C. Avis Boxing Dict. 52 Heavyweight, a standard weight division for professional boxers weighing more than 12 st. 7 lb.; for amateurs, 12 st. 10 lb. |
b. fig. ‘A person of weight or importance; one of much influence’ (Cent. Dict.). U.S. colloq.
c. A work of large size or serious content. Cf. heavy a.1 20 a, b.
| 1928 Blunden Undertones of War x. 111 When I saw scattered about the porch and the doorstep,..a number of volumes,..I could not but snatch up four or five... The heavyweight was..a treatise on Country Houses. 1963 Punch 3 Apr. 488/2, I have managed to convert my wisp of a conte into a heavyweight. |
d. attrib. Also as adj., particularly heavy of its kind.
| 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. 283/1 Ladies' jersey knit ribbed vests, heavy weight Egyptian cotton. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 2 Mar. 5/2 In a variety of cloths, serges, and heavy-weight cashmere. 1931 Bombay Chron. 14 Oct. 1 Heavy-weight championship. 1934 G. B. Shaw Too True to be Good i. 40 Oh, sweetiest, why did you tell me that this heavyweight champion was a helpless invalid? 1958 Times 26 Sept. 6/3 Heavyweight American and Continental trucks and buses are not being exhibited. 1963 Times Lit. Suppl. 4 Jan. 16/5 Figgins's heavyweight version of Caslon's (1816) Sanserif in 1832. 1972 Guardian 31 Oct. 11/5 Underwear: Heavy-weight tights in nylon. |