heavyweight

[hev-ee-weyt] /ˈhɛv iˌweɪt/
adjective
1.
heavy in weight.
2.
of more than average weight or thickness:
a coat of heavyweight material.
3.
noting or pertaining to a boxer, wrestler, etc., of the heaviest competitive class, especially a professional boxer weighing more than 175 pounds (79.4 kg).
4.
of or pertaining to the weight class or division of such boxers:
a heavyweight bout.
5.
(of a riding horse, especially a hunter) able to carry up to 205 pounds (93 kg).
6.
designating a person, company, nation, or other entity that is extremely powerful, influential, or important:
a team of heavyweight lawyers.
noun
7.
a person of more than average weight.
8.
a heavyweight boxer or wrestler.
9.
a person, company, nation, or other entity that is powerful and influential:
a price hike initiated by the heavyweights in the industry.
Origin
1850-55; heavy + weight
Examples from the web for heavyweight
  • More than a dozen heavyweight scholars have signed up as contributors there.
  • And it would it be enhanced by having both heavyweight and welterweight categories.
  • The gas clouds whence they come tend to fragment, leading to multiple middling stars rather than a single heavyweight one.
  • Newton was not the only intellectual heavyweight from his era trying to make gold.
  • heavyweight forged-steel easel holds many of our personalized tile products.
  • But the new heavyweight champion doesn't pack much of a punch.
  • Cheese also has some heavyweight historical proponents.
  • He's a heavyweight, and he's the governor, and he's gonna be there.
  • It is the unquestioned diplomatic and economic heavyweight of its region.
  • The contestants certainly live up to their heavyweight reputations.
British Dictionary definitions for heavyweight

heavyweight

/ˈhɛvɪˌweɪt/
noun
1.
a person or thing that is heavier than average
2.
  1. a professional boxer weighing more than 175 pounds (79 kg)
  2. an amateur boxer weighing more than 81 kg (179 pounds)
  3. (as modifier): the world heavyweight championship
3.
a wrestler in a similar weight category (usually over 214 pounds (97 kg))
4.
(informal) an important or highly influential person
Word Origin and History for heavyweight

noun and adj., 1857 of horses; 1877 of fighters; from heavy + weight. Figuratively, of importance, from 1928.

Slang definitions & phrases for heavyweight

heavyweight

noun

An important person; biggie: He's some sort of heavyweight in the rag trade (1890+)


heavyweight in Technology


High-overhead; baroque; code-intensive; featureful, but costly. Especially used of communication protocols, language designs, and any sort of implementation in which maximum generality and/or ease of implementation has been pushed at the expense of mundane considerations such as speed, memory use and startup time. Emacs is a heavyweight editor; X is an *extremely* heavyweight window system. This term isn't pejorative, but one hacker's heavyweight is another's elephantine and a third's monstrosity.
Opposite: "lightweight". Usage: now borders on technical especially in the compound "heavyweight process".
(1994-12-22)