middleweight

English

Etymology

middle +‎ weight

Noun

middleweight (countable and uncountable, plural middleweights)

1. (uncountable) A weight class in professional boxing between light middleweight or welterweight and super middleweight or cruiserweight; a similar division in wrestling and other sports
2. (countable) A boxer who fights in this division; a similar wrestler etc
3. (by extension) A class in between heavy and light.
   • 1993, United States Army Combat Forces Journal:

     This would give the U.S. Army five parachute-capable brigades, or two "middleweight" infantry brigades, or six light infantry brigades, or six airmobile brigades in only two multicapable divisions.

   • 2022 December 26, The Ukrainian Army’s Jaeger Brigades Are Its Middleweight Forest Troops, in Forbes (Business - Aerospace & Defense):

     In Ukraine, jaeger brigades are middleweight infantry—neither as light as territorial brigades, which generally lack tracked vehicles, nor as heavy as tank or mechanized brigades with their hundreds of tanks and fighting vehicles.

4. (countable, business, by extension) An employee ranking anywhere between junior and senior.
   • 2009, Guy Julier, Liz Moor, Design and Creativity: Policy, Management and Practice:

     And it's interesting because in a way they're much more of a design company, and they've got their juniors and their seniors and their middleweights and all this stuff.

Derived terms

• middleweight spaceship