1
: the unrelieved weight of an inert mass
2
3
: a ship's load including the total weight of cargo, fuel, stores, crew, and passengers
Examples of deadweight in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Taken together, if VIPER fails to fly, the agency will have spent about $800 million to send literal deadweight to the moon instead.
—
Michael Greshko, Scientific American, 24 July 2024
But Iggy Azalea is deadweight on the song, with her blaccent and school-assignment-level rhymes.
—Justin Curto, Vulture, 8 Mar. 2024
What’s your prognosis for the season? 2023 was an anomaly of deadweight contracts and injuries crashing into a youth movement.
—Daniel Kohn, SPIN, 27 Mar. 2024
The benefit is the removal of intermediaries and all the inefficiency and deadweight losses therein.
—Korok Ray, Forbes, 15 Feb. 2024
See all Example Sentences for deadweight 
Michael Greshko, Scientific American, 24 July 2024
But Iggy Azalea is deadweight on the song, with her blaccent and school-assignment-level rhymes.
—Justin Curto, Vulture, 8 Mar. 2024
What’s your prognosis for the season? 2023 was an anomaly of deadweight contracts and injuries crashing into a youth movement.
—Daniel Kohn, SPIN, 27 Mar. 2024
The benefit is the removal of intermediaries and all the inefficiency and deadweight losses therein.
—Korok Ray, Forbes, 15 Feb. 2024
See all Example Sentences for deadweight
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'deadweight.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Deadweight.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deadweight. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
deadweight
noun
dead·weight
ˈded-ˈwāt 
: the full weight of a mass that is not moving
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