deadweight (dedwat)

1. A heavy or oppre ive burden; a weight or burden that has to be borne without aid or without compensatory advantage. The fact is, fine thoughts, enshrined in appropriate language, are dead - weights upon the stage, unle they are struck like sparks from the action of the fable. Corn hill Mag. The gentlest of Nature's growths or motions will, in time, burst asunder or wear away the proudest dead -weight man can heap upon them. W. Phillips , Speeches, p. 42. 2. A name given to an advance by the Bank of England to the government on account of half-pay and pensions to retired officers of the army and navy.-3. Naut ., the lading of a ve el when it consists of heavy goods; that part of the cargo, as coal, iron, etc., which pays freight according to its weight, and not to its bulk. IMG:content-2106.png:[blocks in formation]