cast my weight

[Snowcake]

Hello everybody,

I've tried to find an appropriate translation / meaning for 'cast' in connection with 'weight' but none of them doesn't make sense to me.

It is taken from a song.

Does anyone out there have an idea?

Thank you.

[curmudgeon]

You can cast your shadow or throw your weight. I think cast here means to throw.

'Cast a cold eye o'er life o'er death...
horeseman pass by'

W.B. Yeats's epitaph

[Snowcake]

Thank you.

So is it used (figuratively) in the sense of 'throw away', 'reduce'?

I can't really imagine how to throw 'my' weight.

[curmudgeon]

No, it generally is used as in 'to throw your weight about.' Meaning to bully or harass. I think in the song weight is substituted for shadow. Don't know why...poetic licence?

Trying perhaps to say make people see I am here, that I have substance.

[curmudgeon]

The fisherman cast his net. The boxer threw a punch.

[Snowcake]

Beautifully explained and expressed. I've got it.

Thanks a lot.

[curmudgeon]

Thanks. I hope Germany don't throw away the game tonight haha.