1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Ouerweyght, superpondium.

1640 tr. J. A. Comenius Janua Linguarum Reserata (new ed.) lxxv. §768 If any thing be put to, above the overweight, allowance or remedy; it is a vantage a surplusage, cast in over and besides.

a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) i. 64 They are cast in, as Superpondium, or Overweight, our work being ended before.

a1690 S. Jeake Λογιστικηλογία (1696) 82 There is an Overweight allowed by Merchants called Tret, which is 4 lb. upon every Hundred of 112 lb.

1888 W. E. Nicholson Gloss. Terms Coal Trade 62 Overweight, the difference between the standard weight and the average weight for a fortnight when over the standard.

1894 Boston Arena June 44 The minutest difference of overweight or underweight in the coin.

1971 Times 15 Feb. 9/7 China Cloed finished some eight lengths behind The Otter, but he was putting up 5lb. overweight.

1986 Times 8 May 37/5 We don't regret the 5lb. overweight that Philip put up.

1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §773 Sinking into water is but an over-weight of the body put into the water in respect of the water.

1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §798 If you take so much the more silver as will countervail the over-weight of the lead.

1683 J. Dryden Life Plutarch 107 in J. Dryden et al. tr. Plutarch Lives I Cicero and the Elder Cato, were far from having the overweight against Demosthenes and Aristides.

1805 Ann. Rev. 3 68 [He] had greatly the overweight of popularity.

1878 N. Amer. Rev. Sept. 207 The overweight..of the House of Commons is apt, other things being equal, to bring its leader inconveniently near in power to a primeminister, who is a peer.

1889 Contemp. Rev. Oct. 480 Whatever may be the merits of the contest between them, the overweight of Russia in the possession of advantages for waging it is immense.

1656 H. Phillippes Purchasers Pattern (ed. 3) ii. 190 There are two sorts of Weights used by us in England, the one is called Troy weight, the other is called Avoir-du-poiz, or over-weight.

1940 J. R. R. Tolkien in J. R. Clark Hall & C. L. Wrenn Beowulf & Finnesburg Fragment p. xxxi An example with double overweight would be wéllmàde wárgeàr.

1899 G. R. Shepherd in Med. Examiner July 211/2 From our mortality records the overweights are clearly less desirable than the underweights.

1935 H. Roberts Everyman in Health & Sickness ii. iv. 152 Insurance companies find that ‘overweights’ are bad lives.

1974 Times 4 Jan. 5/3 The overweight have become America's largest, least protected minority group.

1992 Washington City Paper 21 Feb. 76/6 (advt.) Not into politicians, queens, overweights, phonesex.

1899 G. R. Shepherd in Med. Examiner 212/1 Are people who are overweight likely to live longer than those who are..underweight?

1921 F. G. Benedict & F. B. Talbot Metabolism & Growth from Birth to Puberty 71 The number of overweight children..are much fewer than the number of underweights.

1941 F. Silver Foods & Nutrition iv. 117 A child..is considered overweight if he is 20 per cent above the average for his age and height.

1992 Gramophone Jan. 52/2 Here is a reading that manages both power and refinement in the work's often overweight tuttis: I confess my admiration for this symphony becomes sorely threatened..where the slow movement's beautiful cor anglais theme becomes a grandiose tutti.

1995 New Scientist 5 Aug. 7/1 After a four-week course of treatment with a protein called ob, the fat simply falls off, leaving vastly overweight mice slim, active and sensible eaters.

1978 Economist (Nexis) 15 July 95 To work any better than the tap system, a tender would need underwriters. Institutions that are already overweight in government stock have no incentive to perform that function.

1984 Times 14 Feb. 20/1 Overweight funds should consider taking profits.

1996 Financial Post (Canada) 2 Feb. 18/5 He believes that mimicking TSE 300 weightings leads to index-like performance. As a result, he is currently aggessively overweight gold and precious metals, which represents more than 20% of Altamira Equity's Portfolio.

1613 J. Florio tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. (rev. ed.) ii. viii. 220 We also over-weight such vaine future conjectures, which infant-spirits give vs.

1897 G. Gissing Whirlpool i. xi. 120 Your ‘Florence’ called out my ‘Radcliffe’—which sounds fiery, doesn't it? I always felt that the name over-weighted me. I got it from my mother.

1968 A. Powell Mil. Philosophers (1991) ii. 87 Kucherman himself was a figure of much more standing at home than the average officer likely to be found in that post. Possibly some of the Belgian Government thought this fact might overweight the job.

1992 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 25 June 6/2 I am inclined to think..that both Nietzsche and Arnaud somewhat overweight Chamfort's bastardy.

1811 W. Mason Argentile & Curan I. i. 216 A steed of generous blood, when overweighted, Lag ere his latest stage.

1863 C. Reade Hard Cash III. vi. 145 Edward, not to overweight the ladder, went dangling by his hands along the rope towards the tree.

1897 Daily News 22 Feb. 8/6 Their boat was overweighted with household produce... It is supposed the craft foundered.

1966 D. Levertov Altars in Street in Sorrow Dance vi Children begin at green dawn nimbly to build Topheavy altars, overweighted with prayers.

1990 G. Maxwell Tale of Chocolate Egg in Tale of Mayor's Son xxi. 110 Such a vast expanse of paper, the rain Overweighted it.

1940 J. R. R. Tolkien in J. R. Clark Hall & C. L. Wrenn Beowulf & Finnesburg Fragment p. xxxi The second dip of B, C and the dip of D, E may not be overweighted.

1978 Forbes (Nexis) 3 Apr. 114 He says Morgan is underweighting Japanese stocks... Morgan would, on the other hand, overweight Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

1985 Financial Post (Canada) (Nexis) 6 July ii. 16 Right now I'm in favor of overweighting portfolios in steelmakers.

1997 What Investm. Mar. 76/3 We have overweighted the banking sector and will continue to do so, as we expect the banks to enjoy above-market-average earnings growth.