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Decide vs Weigh - What's the difference?

decide | weigh |

As verbs the difference between decide and weigh

is that decide is while weigh is to determine the weight of an object.

decide

English

Verb

(decid)
  • To resolve (a contest, problem, dispute, etc.); to choose, determine, or settle.
  • The election will be decided on foreign policies.
    We must decide our next move.
    Her last-minute goal decided the game.
  • * Shakespeare
  • The quarrel toucheth none but us alone; / Betwixt ourselves let us decide it then.
  • To make a judgment, especially after deliberation.
  • You must decide between good and evil.
    I have decided that it is healthier to walk to work.
  • * Bible, 1 Kings xx. 40
  • So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it.
  • To cause someone to come to a decision.
  • * 1920 , , "The Adventure of the Three Gables" (Norton edition, 2005, p. 1537),
  • It decides me to look into the matter, for if it is worth anyone's while to take so much trouble, there must be something in it.
  • (obsolete) To cut off; to separate.
  • * Fuller
  • Our seat denies us traffic here; / The sea, too near, decides us from the rest.

    Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See

    Synonyms

    * make up one's mind * choose * determine * pick

    weigh

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To determine the weight of an object.
  • Often with "out", to measure a certain amount of something by its weight, e.g. for sale.
  • He weighed out two kilos of oranges for a client.
  • (figuratively) To determine the intrinsic value or merit of an object, to evaluate.
  • You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
  • (intransitive, figuratively, obsolete) To judge; to estimate.
  • * Spenser
  • could not weigh of worthiness aright
  • To consider a subject. (rfex)
  • To have a certain weight.
  • I weigh ten and a half stone.
  • To have weight; to be heavy; to press down.
  • * Cowper
  • They only weigh the heavier.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff / Which weighs upon the heart.
  • To be considered as important; to have weight in the intellectual balance.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Your vows to her and me will even weigh .
  • * John Locke
  • This objection ought to weigh with those whose reading is designed for much talk and little knowledge.
  • (nautical) To raise an anchor free of the seabed.
  • (nautical) To weigh anchor.
  • * 1624 , , Generall Historie , in Kupperman 1988, p. 91:
  • Towards the evening we wayed , and approaching the shoare [...], we landed where there lay a many of baskets and much bloud, but saw not a Salvage.
  • *1841 , (Edgar Allan Poe), ‘A Descent into the Maelström’:
  • *:‘Here we used to remain until nearly time for slack-water again, when we weighed and made for home.’
  • To bear up; to raise; to lift into the air; to swing up.
  • * Cowper
  • Weigh the vessel up.
  • (obsolete) To consider as worthy of notice; to regard.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I weigh not you.
  • * Spenser
  • all that she so dear did weigh

    Derived terms

    * weigh down * weigh in/weigh-in * weight * weighty * weigh up * weigh on