[Cf. MLG. wegehûs, G. wagehaus.] A public building to which commodities are brought to be weighed.
1438. Cal. Patent Rolls, Hen. VI. (1907), III. 192. [By the way which runs between] le Weyhous [of the said staple, and the said] Wolbrigge.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 35. Robert Basset, clerc of the Weyhous at London.
1530. Tindale, Answ. More, Wks. (1572), 278/2. Thirty or forty sturdy lubbers,… of which ye weakest shall be as strong in the belly when he commeth vnto the manger, as the mightiest porter in ye weyhouse.
1598. Stow, Surv., 150. On the North side of this street [Cornhill] … one large house is called the Wey house, where marchandizes brought from beyond the seas, are to bee weighed at the Kinges Beame.
1649. W. Grey, Chorogr., 17. Under the Town-Court is a common Weigh-house for all sorts of Commodities.
1658. Rec. Burgh Lanark (1893), 170. The baillies and counsell ordaines the wechts in the wiehous.
1776. G. Semple, Building in Water, 154. Public Stores and Weigh-houses.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxi. I might hae hung there till the day of judgment … wi’ my head hinging down on the tae side, and my heels on the tother, like the yarn scales in the weigh-house.
1829. Heath, Grocers’ Comp., 186. The general Weighhouse and King’s Beam were in Cornhill, upon the site of the present Sun-Court.
1833. Act 3 & 4 Will. IV., c. 46 § 107. A weigh-house for the use of the inhabitants … with the necessary weights, scales, and measures.
1883. G. H. Boughton, in Harper’s Mag., April, 692/1. Every scale in the weigh-house is painted some distinguishing color.
1907. Daily Chron., 18 Oct., 9/2. A large motor-car … backed into a public weigh-house at Blairgowrie (Perthshire)…. The building was damaged and the steelyard destroyed…. The weighman was in the house at the time, but was uninjured.
