dead weight
Dragging you down
Dead weight is a heavy, inert burden—something that must be carried but provides no assistance in its own transport.
A corpse is the original dead weight, offering none of the cooperation a living body provides.
The term extends to anyone or anything that contributes nothing while consuming resources: The project stalled because half the team was dead weight.
In shipping and engineering, deadweight (one word) refers specifically to the total weight a vessel can carry, including cargo, fuel, and provisions.
Hindrance or legal claim
- liabilityLegal or financial obligation
- hindranceBarrier to progress
- millstoneGrain-crushing circular stone
- albatrossLong-winged oceanic bird
impediment · obstacle · handicap · drag · onus · load · baggage · anchor
encumbrance
Hindrance or legal claim
- liabilityLegal or financial obligation
- hindranceBarrier to progress
- millstoneGrain-crushing circular stone
albatross · impediment · obstacle · handicap · drag · onus · load · baggage · anchor · ball and chain
tonnage
Ship's weight capacity
lift · hoist · cargo · freight · unladen · tare · displacement · payload · hauling · leverage
heaviness
State of being weighty
- exhaustionState of utter depletion
- leadenOppressively heavy or dull
- sluggishSlow and inactive
limp · listless · unresponsive · lifeless · inert · weary · drained · torpid · lethargic · sagging
- death idiomskick the bucket, six feet under, deadly sin, deadbeat, deadpan
- burdensburden, load, onus, obligations, encumbrance
- weightpound, pounds, kilogram, kilograms, gram
- writing flawstypos, spelling errors, plot hole, plot holes, cliche
- mechanicsforce, turning, rotation, momentum, velocity
- business jargonacronym, scalability, buzzword, drill down, low-hanging fruit
dead weightasset
Item of value owned
contributor · key player · driving force · active participant · linchpin
dead weightdriving force
Power behind movement
catalyst · propellant · momentum · engine · powerhouse