Counterweight
noun, verb ·3 syllables ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A heavy mass of often iron or concrete, mechanically linked in opposition to a load which is to be raised and lowered, with the intent of reducing the amount of work which must be done to effect the raising and lowering. Counterweights are used, for example, in cable-hauled elevators and some kinds of movable bridges (e.g. a bascule bridge).
"Four 110-ton counterweights, one in each tower, make this feat possible by reducing the effective weight to be lifted to some 25 tons; but an additional 20 tons (a very heavy snow load) can be lifted if necessary."
- 2 a weight that balances another weight wordnet
- 3 A counterbalance. figuratively
"A counterweight to the anti-immigrant fear mongering of the former leader of the right-wing U.K. Independence Party, Nigel Farage, Lexiteers^([sic]) argued a left-wing, democratic and internationalist case for Brexit."
- 1 To fit with a counterweight. transitive
"Everything on the grid – all the backdrops and curtains, anything that has to move up and down from the fly-tower – has to be counterweighted."
- 2 constitute a counterweight or counterbalance to wordnet
Example
More examples"When the elevator goes up, the counterweight goes down."
Etymology
From counter- + weight.
Related phrases
More for "counterweight"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.