1770 Younger Brother I. ii. 14 ‘Tally-o!’ cries Dick Hunt, ‘hark forward you light weights there!’

1797 E. Marshall Edmund & Eleonora II. liii. 13 My whipper-in, who is a light weight, shall be turned into postillion.

1871 M. Collins Marquis & Merchant III. iv. 112 Presently entered the landlord,..a light weight of five-and-thirty.

1897 Outing 29 542/2 Some breeders of the more numerous lightweights [sc. dogs] have gone a trifle too far in their efforts to secure a fineness likely to catch the judge's eye.

1908 Daily Rep. 20 July 9/1 Lightweights of 2 h.p. are quite capable of averaging well over 20 m.p.h.

1956 P. W. Bidwell What Tariff means to Amer. Industries iv. 80 Americans..who had seen and ridden the lightweights when abroad, began to buy English bicycles for their children.

2009 D. Morris & S. Parker Planet Ape 26 Other arboreal primates are typically lightweights, able to scamper about in the treetops.

1831 New Monthly Mag. 32 124 Let us ask this nonpareil of the light weights of the Blue and Yellow, what meaning he attaches to the term ‘theory’, and how he would contra-distinguish it from practice?

1902 G. H. Lorimer Lett. Merchant (1903) ii. 19 That is the spot where a young man has the chance to show that he is not a lightweight.

1962 Listener 25 Jan. 185/2 Of the other stories in this book, those by the long-established writers..are light-weights.

1965 Eng. Stud. 46 209 After Holiness or Justice, Courtesy may seem as something of a light-weight.

2013 Ethical Theory & Moral Pract. 16 530 Its proponents, such as Ayn Rand, are portrayed as intellectual lightweights—or worse, as kooks.

1919 Photoplay Jan. 80/2 The natives and others who had become accustomed to Flatbush and its weather are still wearing lightweights.

1930 Daily Mail 2 May 8/5 It feels fine to shed winterwear and put on Morley lightweights. So loose and light.

1973 R. Busby Pattern of Violence v. 80 He..picked up a man's suit jacket from the floor. It was a grey lightweight.

1995 Financial Times 23 Sept. (Weekend section) p. xvii A summer lightweight, a Prince of Wales check, a navy, a charcoal grey and the ubiquitous dress suit.

1937 Blackwood's Mag. May 616/2 I realised that the mixture was no longer tea flavoured by whisky... ‘You're both lightweights’.

1962 Spectator 9 Mar. 293/2 I had known empirically for years, that I have no head for alcohol; I'm a lightweight.

2016 K. Parks Lifeboat Clique v. 54 I'm a lightweight, and the beer had started taking effect.

1809 E. S. Barrett Setting Sun I. 39 May we not see in them the hand-writing on the wall,..the end of the government of light-weight princes?

1880 N.Y. Times 16 Oct. 4/3 Mr. Barnum, like many another lightweight Democrat, has become so accustomed to bawl ‘Fraud!’ on every possible occasion.

1930 J. T. Hatfield et al. Curme Vol. Ling. Stud. 52 The intervening verbs are chiefly light-weight grammatical words.

1957 Times Lit. Suppl. 13 Dec. 751/2 One cannot reproach him with having produced a rather lightweight book.

1992 N.Y. Mag. 13 July 100/5 Ronald Reagan stars in this engaging, lightweight comedy about a college professor who, for the sake of a heredity experiment, treats a chimp as his own child.

2008 Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 22 Aug. 7 It's an under-achieving, lightweight movie that settles for a few competent gags and doesn't bother to take risks.

1823 Morning Chron. 6 Oct. Winterflood, a light-weight boxer, celebrated for his fights with Painter, Abbott, and others.

1857 G. A. Lawrence Guy Livingstone ix. 80 Having her [sc. a mare] broken into a perfect light-weight hunter.

1880 W. Day Racehorse in Training 198 The runners in the welter races have surpassed those in the light-weight handicaps by two.

1896 Daily News 12 June 6/3 His engagement as a light-weight jockey.

1935 Southern Campus (Univ. California, Los Angeles) 309 The introduction of intercollegiate lightweight basketball, has shown the proficiency of shorter men for this sport.

1951 Call (Perth, Austral.) 2 Aug. 7/4 Denny is on his way to the National lightweight title over there.

1996 Total Sport July 38/1 Martin is the Women's World Lightweight Champion.

1837 N.-Y. Spectator 12 June (advt.) 200 boxes Hobart's full and light weight Tacks.

1848 Lloyd's Weekly London Newspaper 14 May 6/2 Light weight Over Coats, lined through with silk.

1898 Westm. Gaz. 24 June 1/3 Some light-weight Colonial gold coins.

1902 Daily Chron. 8 Nov. 8/3 Every woman who walks much clings to a light-weight Russian blouse.

1953 News Chron. 2 June 2/2 Squatting to drink it [sc. tea] in the light-weight (six pound) proofed cotton nylon tents.

1998 Balloons & Airships July 13/3 Advances in engineering have resulted in airships constructed from state of the art materials such as carbon fibre, kevlar and lightweight alloys.

2013 Straits Times (Singapore) 23 Aug. (Urban section) 8/1 Apply a thin layer of lightweight eye serum around your eyes to hydrate the delicate skin.

2018 Pioneer (India) (Nexis) 24 Apr. Embrace the summer in lightweight fabrics, bright colors and free-flowing shapes.

1802 G. Culley Let. 6 Nov. in M. Culley & G. Culley Farming Lett. (2006) 375 We advised the turning out of Cuddy Harvey's steers and a spayed quey, a nice one which you had ordered to be cast, and a light-weighted beast or 2.

1867 J. R. Lowell in Atlantic Monthly Nov. 625/2 We..see the rather light-weighted great man wheeled round the room..to converse with his guests.

1905 Westm. Gaz. 21 Mar. 8/2 The London and Brighton Handicap Steeplechase on Friday may be won by the light-weighted Dam.

2008 B. Mahltig & T. Textor Nanosols & Textiles iii. 54 A light-weighted, flexible material with high (tensile) strength.

1955 Central Glass & Ceramic Res. Inst. Bull. (Calcutta) Apr. 68/1 Some countries, especially the U.S.A., are turning to light-weighting the containers as it gives economy in glass, greater speed of production and reduced cost of freight.

1997 Environmental Law 27 1273 By extending the producer's responsibility to the product's disposal..issues previously outside the business calculus become of paramount importance... Can the packaging be lightweighted? Are the materials all recyclable?

2015 New Scientist 28 Feb. 23/1 According to Klausner, ‘lightweighting’ all cars and planes in the US would save 121 billion litres of fuel a year and cut carbon emissions by about 5 per cent.