makeweight means something of inferior quality which is included in a shipment to make up the weight. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Etymology
From make + weight.
noun
- Something of inferior quality which is included in a shipment to make up the weight.“1893, Richard Le Gallienne, in a publisher's report on stories by Ernest Dowson, quoted in Jad Adams, Madder Music, Stronger Wine, page 88.
I would advise you to accept these as an instalment of a volume, (they are not big enough to make one themselves) with the promise that the stories to come should be more striking, more original in theme — not less so, not mere makeweights — than those under c”
- Something included to add to the apparent weight or force of an argument.“He added a long litany of peripheral precedents which the judge dismissed as mere makeweights.”