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ˈfeather-weight
1. That which has the weight of a feather; hence, a very small thing.
1838Dickens O. Twist (1850) 283/1 He turned..to observe the effect of the slightest featherweight in his favour. 1885A. M. Clerke Pop. Hist. Astron. 108 The feather-weight of his carelessness, however, kicked the beam. 1915F. M. Hueffer Good Soldier i. vi. 88 Leonora lifted her up—she was the merest feather-weight—and laid her on the bed. 1932D. C. Minter Mod. Needlecraft 161/1 Now..tweeds and cloths are manufactured in featherweights.
2. Racing. The lightest weight allowed by the rules to be carried by a horse in a handicap. Hence sometimes applied to the rider.
1812Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 136 The animals rode a feather weight. 1858Jockey Club Rules in Blaine's Rural Sports (1870) 376 A feather weight shall be considered 4 st. 7 lb. 1883E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leicestersh. 132 [He] was going like a youth and a feather-weight.
fig.1860Motley Netherl. I. 313 Burghley and Walsingham..were no feather-weights, like the frivolous Henry III.
3. Boxing. Applied to a pugilist who is very light, as distinguished from a heavy-, middle-, or light-weight. Also attrib.
1889E. B. Michell Boxing 147 The boundary between heavy and middle weight, down to feather-weight (9 stone). 1928Daily Express 2 Oct. 17/7 The world's feather⁓weight boxing title. 1933Wodehouse Heavy Weather ix. 143 Getting a featherweight Boxing blue at Cambridge.
4. A light make of bicycle. (Disused.)
1901Morning Leader 18 Dec. 6/2 Cycling Gossip. The topic at the moment undoubtedly is the new feather⁓weight fashion. 1902Daily Chron. 17 May 8/6, I had these featherweights also in mind when I said that ‘makers have not catered especially for light riders’. 1908Ibid. 3 Aug. 6/6 Green's mount was a featherweight Raleigh.
5. Paper. (See quots.)
1905Daily Chron. 28 June 3/2 A ‘feather-weight’ laid paper of a durable kind is employed. a1912Paper Terminol. (Spalding & Hodge) ii. 9 Featherweight, antique laid or wove light handling book papers. They are manufactured mainly from esparto, are very loosely woven, and of extreme bulk. The bulkiest are entirely unloaded. 1957N.Z. Timber Jrnl. Feb. 45/2 Feather weight paper, a very light antique book paper of woven esparto. 1966H. Williamson Methods Bk. Design (ed. 2) xviii. 290 Thick, fluffy, feeble, antique featherweight papers..are still widely used to give books a deceptive bulk.
So ˈfeather-weighted ppl. a., trifling, unimportant; ˈfeatherweight a. = feather-weighted ppl. adj.; weak.
1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 274 Finding that he can make those feather-weighted accidents balance each other. 1885A. Edwards Girton Girl II. x. 147 It would do your cousin a vast deal of good to run away from that feather-weight husband of hers. 1958Times 5 Nov. 13/1 He [sc. André Masson] remains..one who can just rely enough on Parisian elegance and flair to be shamelessly pretty and featherweight for much of the time. |