weigh down

weigh down

1. To burden or immobilize something by attaching additional weight or placing it on top. A noun or pronoun can be used between "weigh" and "down." You should weigh down those papers with a paperweight so they don't fly out the window. Your car definitely won't get good gas mileage if you have all that heavy equipment in the trunk weighing it down.
2. By extension, to be a burden or impediment to. A noun or pronoun can be used between "weigh" and "down." It feels good to finally get that off my chest. I've felt like I've been weighed down by guilt all these years. All the extra orders have been weighing us down a bit, but hopefully we'll be able to get back to normal operations after the holidays.
See also: down, weigh
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

weigh someone or something down

to burden someone or something. The heavy burden weighed the poor donkey down. The load of bricks weighed down the truck.
See also: down, weigh

weigh someone down

Fig. [for a thought] to worry or depress someone. All these problems really weigh me down. Financial problems have been weighing down our entire family.
See also: down, weigh
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

weigh down

Burden, oppress, as in Their problems have weighed them down. This expression transfers bowing under a physical weight to emotional burdens. [c. 1600]
See also: down, weigh
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

weigh down

v.
1. To hold or bend something down by applying weight: I weighed the trail map down on the ground with stones. The vines were weighed down by their heavy grapes.
2. To burden or oppress someone or something: Heavy backpacks weighed down the hikers. The responsibilities of the new job weighed me down.
See also: down, weigh
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • weigh on
  • weigh on (someone or something)
  • involve with
  • involve with (someone or something)
  • involved with
  • arrange for
  • arrange for some time
  • arrange some music for
  • add in
  • angling
References in periodicals archive
"I worried I was going to hell." Amy Hartman, a 32-year-old research associate in Indianapolis, joined a Weigh Down programme in 2005.
But at the Weigh Down retreat in Franklin she felt like an outsider.
Christians returned The Weigh Down Diet book, which had sold 1,000,000 copies, and churches cancelled classes.
Lettuce party; EXCLUSIVE SECT LEADER WHO'S MADE DIETING INTO A RELIGION
To counter the helium balloons' lifting force, Ninomiya wears--, which consists of water-filled bags, to weigh down his body.
Lift off! Taking to the skies with helium balloons
Hundreds of thousands of Americans are converts to the Weigh Down Works.
Weigh Down's logo is a knife and fork arranged into the sign of the Cross.
Gwen's book, The Weigh Down Diet, has become a second Bible to Christian fatties.
Thou shalt diet.. and cast the first stone!; U.S. GOES CRAZY OVER THE BIBLE SLIMMING PLAN
The heavy steel tubes which are used to stabilise the flying edges also weigh down the more conventional two-sided vaults and they are all strapped to the corrugated sheets with thin steel hoops which recall the bamboo straps that hold together the ceilings of traditional Japanese farm buildings.
Making waves