Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Makeweight
Make′weightˊ
,Noun.
That which is thrown into a scale to make weight; something of little account added to supply a deficiency or fill a gap.
Webster 1828 Edition
Makeweight
MA'KEWEIGHT
,Noun.
Definition 2024
makeweight
makeweight
English
Noun
makeweight (plural makeweights)
- Something of inferior quality which is included in a shipment to make up the weight.
- 1893, Richard Le Gallienne, in a publisher's report on stories by Ernest Dowson, quoted in Jad Adams, Madder Music, Stronger Wine, page 88.
- I would advise you to accept these as an instalment of a volume, (they are not big enough to make one themselves) with the promise that the stories to come should be more striking, more original in theme — not less so, not mere makeweights — than those under consideration.
- 1893, Richard Le Gallienne, in a publisher's report on stories by Ernest Dowson, quoted in Jad Adams, Madder Music, Stronger Wine, page 88.
- Something included to add to the apparent weight or force of a argument.
- He added a long litany of peripheral precedents which the judge dismissed as mere makeweights.
See also
- butcher's thumb
- adjectitious