Weft, weft, n. the threads woven into and crossing the warp—also Woof.—n. Weft′age, texture. [A.S. weft—wefan, to weave.]
Weft, weft, n. (Spens.) a waif, a castaway.
Wefte, weft, v.pa.t. (Spens.) was wafted, avoided.
Weigh. wā, v.t. to compare by the balance: to find the heaviness of: to be equal to in heaviness: to bear up, to raise, esp. a ship's anchor: to ponder in the mind: to consider worthy of notice.—v.i. to have weight: to be considered of importance: to press heavily: to weigh anchor, get under sail.—adj. Weigh′able, capable of being weighed.—ns. Weigh′age, rate paid for the weighing of goods; Weigh′-bauk (Scot.), the beam of a balance: (pl.) a pair of scales; Weigh′-board (same as Way-board); Weigh′-bridge, a machine for weighing carts with their loads.—p.adj. Weighed (Bacon), experienced.—ns. Weigh′er, an officer who weighs articles or tests weights; Weigh′-house, a public building for weighing goods, ascertaining the tonnage of boats, &c.; Weigh′ing; Weigh′ing-cage, a cage in which live animals are weighed; Weigh′ing-machine′, a machine or apparatus for weighing heavy goods; Weight, the heaviness of a thing when weighed, or the amount which anything weighs: the force with which a body is attracted to the earth, measured by the mass into the acceleration: a mass of metal adjusted to a standard and used for finding weight: anything heavy: a ponderous mass: pressure: importance: power: impressiveness: in mining, subsidence of the roof due to overhead pressure, also called Weigh′ting.—v.t. to make more heavy.—adv. Weigh′tily.—n. Weigh′tiness.—adjs. Weight′less; Weigh′ty.—Weigh down, to depress: (Shak.) to preponderate over; Weigh in, to ascertain one's weight before a contest, as a horse-race; Weight of metal, total weight of iron thrown at one discharge from a ship's guns.—Dead weight (see Dead). [A.S. wegan, to carry; Ger. wiegen; L. vehĕre, to carry.]
Weigh, wā, n. a very common misspelling of way in the phrase 'Under way,' through confusion with the phrase 'To weigh anchor.'
Weir, Wear, wēr, n. a dam across a river: a fence of stakes set in a stream for catching fish. [A.S. wer, an enclosure, allied to werian, to protect; cf. Ger. wehr, a dam, wehren, to ward.]
Weird, wērd, n. fate: that which comes to pass: a spell or charm.—adj. skilled in witchcraft: unearthly, uncanny.—v.t. to destine, doom, adjure.—adv. Weird′ly.—n. Weird′ness.—Dree one's weird (see Dree).—The weird Sisters, the Fates. [A.S. wyrd, fate—weorthan, to become; Ger. werden.]
Weism, wē′izm, n. inordinate use of the pronoun we.
Weismannism, vīs′man-izm, n. the doctrine in biology of August Weismann (born 1834)—that acquired characters are not transmitted, function and environment affecting the individual only, not the species, the sole source of evolutionary change being the intermingling of germ-plasma which occurs in fertilisation, and the condition of progress being found in the action of natural selection on the germinal variations which thus arise.
Welaway. Same as Wellaway.