LIGHTWEIGHT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lightweight mean? 

• LIGHTWEIGHT (noun)
  The noun LIGHTWEIGHT has 4 senses:

1. a professional boxer who weighs between 131 and 135 pounds

2. someone who is unimportant but cheeky and presumptuous

3. an amateur boxer who weighs no more than 132 pounds

4. a wrestler who weighs 139-154 pounds

  Familiarity information: LIGHTWEIGHT used as a noun is uncommon.

• LIGHTWEIGHT (adjective)
  The adjective LIGHTWEIGHT has 2 senses:

1. weighing relatively little compared with another item or object of similar use

2. having no importance or influence

  Familiarity information: LIGHTWEIGHT used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LIGHTWEIGHT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A professional boxer who weighs between 131 and 135 pounds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("lightweight" is a kind of...):

gladiator; prizefighter (a professional boxer)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who is unimportant but cheeky and presumptuous

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

jackanapes; lightweight; whippersnapper

Hypernyms ("lightweight" is a kind of...):

cipher; cypher; nobody; nonentity (a person of no influence)

Derivation:

lightweight (having no importance or influence)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An amateur boxer who weighs no more than 132 pounds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("lightweight" is a kind of...):

boxer; pugilist (someone who fights with his fists for sport)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A wrestler who weighs 139-154 pounds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("lightweight" is a kind of...):

grappler; matman; wrestler (combatant who tries to throw opponent to the ground)

• LIGHTWEIGHT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Weighing relatively little compared with another item or object of similar use

Context example:

lightweight wood

Similar:

light (of comparatively little physical weight or density)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having no importance or influence

Context example:

a lightweight intellect

Similar:

unimportant (not important)

Derivation:

lightweight (someone who is unimportant but cheeky and presumptuous)

 Context examples 

Lightweight semiconducting plastics are now widely used in mass market electronic displays such as those found in phones, tablets and flat-screen televisions.

(Plastic crystals hold key to record-breaking energy transport, Universities of Cambridge)

The researchers first twist-spun the nanotubes into high-strength, lightweight yarns.

(Energy-Harvesting Yarns Generate Electricity, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

And birds' lightweight, hollow bones break easily, accelerating the decay of the DNA within.

(Extinct Caribbean bird yields DNA after 2,500 years in watery grave, National Science Foundation)

Spongy bone is lightweight and consists of trabeculae, which branch and intersect to form a sponge like network, and red bone marrow for hematopoiesis.

(Mature Bone, NCI Thesaurus)

It could also lead to the creation of more durable, lightweight materials for the aerospace industry.

(Discovery may lead to osteoporosis treatment, National Science Foundation)

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, developed a lightweight microscope that attaches to a cell phone.

(Smartphone microscope detects nanoparticles and viruses, NIH)

You only need a very thin film of this perovskite material – around one thousand times thinner than a human hair – to achieve similar efficiencies to the silicon wafers currently used, opening up the possibility of incorporating them into windows or flexible, ultra-lightweight smartphone screens.

(‘Messy’ production of perovskite material increases solar cell efficiency, University of Cambridge)