What Exactly Is ‘Dead Weight’?

Funeral directors and criminals have at least one thing in common: They’re tasked with transporting corpses around. Sometimes, the act of picking up a dead body or other inert cargo is referred to as dead weight. But does dead weight literally mean dead? And is it possible for a dead or unconscious body to somehow be more difficult to lift than if the person were alert?

Yes and no.

Per the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase dead weight can be traced back to the 1600s and is defined as the “weight of something which does not move by itself; a heavy, inert weight.”

A firefighter, for example, may have to carry a person overcome by smoke out of a burning building. While they don’t weigh any more than they did prior to the fire, the first responder might have more difficulty carrying them because their weight is now unevenly distributed. Someone awake might hold their head up or otherwise cooperate by instinctually making themselves easier to carry; someone who is passed out might have it lolling off to the side. Limp arms and legs cause further imbalance.

This really isn’t an issue of a person (or object) being without consciousness, as it is about not having a proper center of mass. Moving or fluctuating weight causes a person’s own muscles to shift and adjust in order to balance the load, leading to increased effort. The center of mass is no longer static: Instead, it’s shifting. It’s not that the weight is different—it’s that the weight is no longer predictable.

As Parade columnist Marilyn vos Savant once observed, one way to visualize dead weight is to think of carrying 40 pounds of books in a compact box. The weight, which is centered, can be handled without much difficulty. But those same books in a laundry bag will be harder to lift because the weight is distributed unevenly.

Dead weight can take on other meanings. It might be a kind of burden, as in the case of an unproductive employee. It might also be used as a kind of measuring stick for physical inventory, as in train or ship cargo or the weight of a vessel minus its contents or crew.

Most people, however, associate dead weight with limp bodies. They don’t have to be dead, just resistant, such as a protester who lies down in the street to make it harder to be dragged off. If knowing how to move dead weight truly concerns you, you can take some first aid classes to learn various transportation or carry techniques. Most instructors will likely tell you to avoid pulling, as it can result in injury. If the dead weight is metaphorical in nature, you’ll have to figure out something else.

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