dead weight

noun

No English definition recorded for this entry.

With just enough weight for a ball to drop into a pocket, or come to rest in a precisely determined position.
“He rolled the red in dead weight, and now he's nicely on the blue.”
“I had no escape other than trying to roll off a side cushion, just ahead of the middle pocket, and lay on a red, dead weight, about a foot from the pocket in open play.”

Unremitting heavy weight that does not move.
“His dead weight, as he abruptly collapses, pulls his lapels from her hands, reminding her to step back, off-balancing whoever is behind her, […]”
The largest weight of cargo a ship is able to carry; i.e., the weight of a ship when fully loaded minus its weight when empty.
A dead load.
That which is useless or excess; that which slows something down.
“She wants to shed the dead weight of so many stacks of old clutter.”
“It was Ethel Churchill, dressed as a bride, and on her wedding morning, that Norbourne had seen. She had sought the summer-house for a few moments of quiet and solitude. There was a dead weight on her spirits, which she rather sought to indulge than to shake off.”
The total (unpowered) weight of a train to be propelled (or hauled) by the locomotive; another locomotive being hauled dead as part of the train is a dead weight.
“Having dropped the coach, the trio returned with the Class 47 leading and the other two locomotives as dead weight.”