weight n.
(orig. US)1. in fig. senses.
(a) influence, importance.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | ‘Not As It Shou’d Be’ in Songs Comic and Satyrical 118: How many loud Coffee-house praters / Will boast of the weight / Which they have in the State, / And wou’d be the Nation’s Dictators. | |
| ‘Epistle to a Falling Minister’ Works (1794) II 217: What ministerial wight that bribes each Cit, Wolf-like to howl for homage to King Pitt. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Wanderings of a Vagabond 277: ‘Whenever they’re “pulled” by the police, he gets them out of quod.’ ‘Then he must have some weight with the police?’ I said. | |
| Hooch! 46: Swinneton has got a lot of weight. | |
| Und. and Prison Sl. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Battlers 223: I must get hold of that Scotty. He swings a lot of weight with these chaps. | |
| Down These Mean Streets (1970) 127: Maybe it wasn’t a bad idea to take it low when the weight was all on the other side. Dig it, man, the Indian fought the paddy and lost. | |
| Stories Cops Only Tell Each Other 165: I ask him if there’s any chance of getting into Civil Defense—a day job. He says [...] drop dead. So I go see my cousin—a deputy chief—and I ask him could he use his weight. | |
| Monster (1994) 144: T-Bone’s name carried a little weight in his ’hood. | |
| Westsiders 288: Alex is new in A&R at Virgin. He doesn’t carry much weight yet. | |
| Life 229: Yet you know they’re carrying weight, they can bring down some heavy-duty shit. |
(b) blame, emotional or psychological pressure.
| Really the Blues 161: Weight was really on me [...] there were more tears in my eyes than I could see through. | |
| No Beast So Fierce 18: But I want you to know something, you’re putting weight on friendship. | |
| Homeboy 354: How would his conscience bear up [...] with Speaker’s life added to that weight. |
(c) responsibility, obligation, duty; thus carry weight under carry v.
 | implied in take the weight | |
| Scene (1996) 9: You’re too weak to take your own weight? | |
| I’m a Jack, All Right 8: Red Watch has the weight tonight. | |
| Street Players 13: So, you know, take your own weight. | |
| House of Slammers 47: Babylove wasn’t about to take any weight upon himself. If caught, he would have simply [...] said he was asleep. | |
| Corner (1998) 23: Fran’s sister, Bunchie, pays thirty-two dollars a month [...] She, in turn, pushes that weight off onto three siblings [...] charging each fifty a month for a bedroom. |
2. as a weapon.
(a) (US Und.) a police truncheon.
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
(b) (US black) a gun, a pistol.
| Among Thieves 20: ‘I mean, are you figuring on packing some weight in this thing?’ ‘Guns?’ Mel said. ‘We don’t need no guns.’. |
3. in drug uses.
(a) a large quantity of drugs (esp. pounds of hashish/marijuana, kilos of cocaine/heroin).
| Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 124: [W]e weren’t exactly starving serving up the bigger weights. | |
| Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 173: These were the people into all the cocaine weight. | |
| Requiem for a Dream (1987) 108: We can go for weight . . . yeah, a pound of pure. | |
| (con. 1940s–60s) ‘Whitey’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 213: We talked [...] of Whitey contacting his man and connecting for weight in heroin, and of pushing. | |
| ‘Short Texas’ 🎵 We makin too much money movin weight. | |
| ‘Under the Influence’ 🎵 I used to tell cats I sold weed and weight. | |
| Portable Promised Land (ms.) 189: The place messy with stacks of cream and weight. | |
| Way Home (2009) 16: I don’t want no trouble tonight. Rmember, we got some weight in the back. | |
| Viva La Madness 91: There’ll be plenty more [money] when we start shifting weight. | |
| The Force [ebook] Someone’s sitting on some weight, looking to lay it off. | |
| ‘Broken’ in Broken 11: This was his big chance—to move that kind of weight up the river. |
(b) 1lb of marijuana, cannabis; may be qualified by number, e.g. five weight of hash, 5lb of hashish.
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Dread Culture 131: Dem tear down me gates and find mi rings and two weights of herbs. Cho! | |
| Out of Time (ms.) 71: I brought back a weight. I saw it being collected. I watched the tribesmen run through fields of pollen wearing leather aprons and just scrape it off and press it into blocks. It was such a high. |
(c) 1oz of heroin.
| Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Weight. A street ounce of heroin. |
(d) a measure of a given drug, differing as to the drug in question.
| Way Past Cool 30: Deek bought from a good supplier, didn’t cut any more than it already was, and sold full weights. | |
| ‘Mad About Bars’ 🎵 I learnt from Cruz now I bring back Zs, bro drop mad work, that weight get benched. |
(e) cocaine.
| (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Weight - cocaine. |
In phrases
(N.Z.) to have the measure of a person.
| Twilight Hour 38: ‘I’m always asking you something, and you always reply you don’t know,’ I laughed. ‘Well, Dicky, you have got my weights up, haven’t you?’ [DNZE]. |
(US black) to be lacking in the attributes required for ‘street credibility’.
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 40: Put in another vernacular context, ‘He holds no weight.’ [Ibid.] 242: hold no weight 1. Be unimpressive. 2. Lack credibility. 3. Possess little or no knowledge of the streets. |
(Aus.) to deal with a sudden financial problem.
| Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. |
(US black) to dance energetically.
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 put yo’ weight on it Definition: to get down on the dance floor Example: All you bitches on the dance flo’, Put yo’ weight on it! Put yo’ weight on it! Put yo’ weight on it! |
(N.Z.) to cause trouble deliberately.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Pagan Game (1969) 163: Got the pricker with me because I put his weights up. | |
| (ref. to 1920s) Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 121/2: weights, phr. putting your weights up putting someone in trouble; possibly from weights carried in handicap horse races; eg ‘I’d watch Monk if I was you, he’d put your weights up with the cops soon as look at you.’ Australian miners c.1925. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. |
(Aus./US) to pressurize.
| Won’t Know Till I Get There 10: ‘That’s not fair, Dad,’ I said. ‘You’re putting the weight on me. I didn’t do anything’. | |
| Black Tide (2012) [ebook] People want him [...] He put the weight on them, they want him gone. |
(US) to take responsibility.
| ‘Mexicana Rose’ in et al. Life (1976) 41: I’ll rob trains and banks and lots of other things, / And take the weight for narcotics rings. | |
| Howard Street 201: I figured it was best if only one of us took the weight to save the rest from punishment. | |
| Carlito’s Way 79: Amadeo’s got Rocco taking all the weight what goes with being a dope pusher. | |
| Hard Candy (1990) 51: ‘Ask your teacher why he didn’t go to prison.’ [...] ‘I know Burke took the weight for him that time’. | |
| Clockers 336: I don’t think he did it, my brother. [...] I think my brother’s taking the weight for – for someone. |
(US black) a phr. meaning that something is somebody else’s responsibility or duty.
| Third Ear n.p.: that’s your weight an expression used to indicate another’s area of responsibility or duty. |
(UK Und.) a substantial prison sentence.
| Boss of Britain’s Underworld 175: Bob Lee of the Flying Squad made it known to the underworld that whoever had done this rotten job would get top weight if he was tumbled. [Ibid.] 179: He would have been pleased to have given me top weight if I had been found guilty. |
worthless, worth very little.
| Londinismen (2nd edn). |