Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US, also featherweight) an insignificant person, a weakling.

1879		in Annals of the War 508: They were both ‘light weights’ in their profession [HDAS].
1885		A. Edwardes Girton Girl 205: I am not good at these high passions! [...] In everything I am a light weight .
1904		Ade ‘The Fable of Successful Tobias’ in True Bills 29: He celebrated the Glad New-Year by standing around in Doorways and looking mournfully at the Light-Weights who were doing the Cotillon.
1914		R. Tressell Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1955) 233: You may be sure it won’t be Sawkins or any of the other lightweights.
1927		(con. 1925) ‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 193: Our light-weights will go wicked and take their revenge out of the innocent work.
1933		Public Enemy [film script] Couple of lightweights . . . yeah, flat tyres.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 165: Of course Johnny is a lightweight [...] everybody knows he is a complete nitwit.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 151: Lightweight An effeminate male.
1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 33: Lightweight, n. A person with low intelligence.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 95: In walked Walberto and Monchin. [...] Never seen one without the other—two lightweights, but Monchin was sneaky fast and would hurt you.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 36: Who the hell did you think you were out with? Some asshole featherweight?
1987		T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 61: And therefore . . . no slackers allowed! no deadwood! no lightweights!
1998		I. Welsh Filth 186: What about the case? I say coldly and briskly, making Toal and Drummond look like the frivolous lightweights they are.
2000		Indep. 14 Feb. 18: Get on with it Flo, you lightweight!
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 21: People [...] thought he was a lightweight, the court jester.
2017		S.M. Jones August Snow [ebook] ‘Mind if I don’t shake your hand?’ I said. ‘Lightweight’.

2. an intellectual mediocrity.

1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Intermittent Fusser’ in Ade’s Fables 53: He saw many a Light Weight with [...] just enough intellectual Acumen to stir Tea with out spilling it.
1967		A. Baraka Tales (1969) 13: You better start thinking about him [i.e. a professor] or you’ll punch right out. They don’t need lightweights down in the valley.

3. (US black) one who leads a sheltered life and does not properly participate in the tougher ghetto world.

1975

E. Torres Carlito’s Way 46: Check out them lightweights good before you bury them.

4. one who cannot equal their peers in the sphere of drinking or taking drugs.

1970		G. Cain Blueschild Baby 22: ‘What you been doing since you got out? Fucking around again?’ ‘Yeah, light weight though, ain’t got no jones yet’.
1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct.
1989		P. Munro Sl. U. 122: Tony drank one beer and was totally blitzed — what a lightweight.
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Lightweight (noun) Someone who can’t hold their alcohol.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] A half [i.e. tablet of MDMA] was for lightweights, which he most certainly was not.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 275: C’moan, Tam, ya fuckin lightweight, he roars at Tommy, whae returns fae the bog lookin like a ghost.
2014		M.E. Fitch ‘Tommy, Who Loved to Laugh’ in ThugLit Sept. [ebook] [O]ccasionally [...] sharing the whiskey. I was a lightweight at this point and there was plenty to go around.
2020		C. von Ziegesar Cobble Hill 166: Tupper was a lightweight and would soon be very drunk.