Weak \Weak\ (w[=e]k), a. [Compar. Weaker (w[=e]k"[~e]r);
superl. Weakest.] [OE. weik, Icel. veikr; akin to Sw. vek,
Dan. veg soft, flexible, pliant, AS. w[=a]c weak, soft,
pliant, D. week, G. weich, OHG. weih; all from the verb seen
in Icel. v[imac]kja to turn, veer, recede, AS. w[imac]can to
yield, give way, G. weichen, OHG. w[imac]hhan, akin to Skr.
vij, and probably to E. week, L. vicis a change, turn, Gr.
e'i`kein to yield, give way. [root]132. Cf. Week, Wink,
v. i. Vicissitude.]
[1913 Webster]
1. Wanting physical strength. Specifically:
[1913 Webster]
(a) Deficient in strength of body; feeble; infirm; sickly;
debilitated; enfeebled; exhausted.
[1913 Webster]
A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man.
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
Weak with hunger, mad with love. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
(b) Not able to sustain a great weight, pressure, or
strain; as, a weak timber; a weak rope.
[1913 Webster]
(c) Not firmly united or adhesive; easily broken or
separated into pieces; not compact; as, a weak ship.
[1913 Webster]
(d) Not stiff; pliant; frail; soft; as, the weak stalk of
a plant.
[1913 Webster]
(e) Not able to resist external force or onset; easily
subdued or overcome; as, a weak barrier; as, a weak
fortress.
[1913 Webster]
(f) Lacking force of utterance or sound; not sonorous;
low; small; feeble; faint.
[1913 Webster]
A voice not soft, weak, piping, and womanish.
--Ascham.
[1913 Webster]
(g) Not thoroughly or abundantly impregnated with the
usual or required ingredients, or with stimulating and
nourishing substances; of less than the usual
strength; as, weak tea, broth, or liquor; a weak
decoction or solution; a weak dose of medicine.
[1913 Webster]
(h) Lacking ability for an appropriate function or office;
as, weak eyes; a weak stomach; a weak magistrate; a
weak regiment, or army.
[1913 Webster]
2. Not possessing or manifesting intellectual, logical,
moral, or political strength, vigor, etc. Specifically:
[1913 Webster]
(a) Feeble of mind; wanting discernment; lacking vigor;
spiritless; as, a weak king or magistrate.
[1913 Webster]
To think every thing disputable is a proof of a
weak mind and captious temper. --Beattie.
[1913 Webster]
Origen was never weak enough to imagine that
there were two Gods. --Waterland.
[1913 Webster]
(b) Resulting from, or indicating, lack of judgment,
discernment, or firmness; unwise; hence, foolish.
[1913 Webster]
If evil thence ensue,
She first his weak indulgence will accuse.
--Milton.
[1913 Webster]
(c) Not having full confidence or conviction; not decided
or confirmed; vacillating; wavering.
[1913 Webster]
Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but
not to doubtful disputations. --Rom. xiv. 1.
[1913 Webster]
(d) Not able to withstand temptation, urgency, persuasion,
etc.; easily impressed, moved, or overcome;
accessible; vulnerable; as, weak resolutions; weak
virtue.
[1913 Webster]
Guard thy heart
On this weak side, where most our nature fails.
--Addison.
[1913 Webster]
(e) Wanting in power to influence or bind; as, weak ties;
a weak sense of honor of duty.
[1913 Webster]
(f) Not having power to convince; not supported by force
of reason or truth; unsustained; as, a weak argument
or case. "Convinced of his weak arguing." --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
A case so weak . . . hath much persisted in.
--Hooker.
[1913 Webster]
(g) Wanting in point or vigor of expression; as, a weak
sentence; a weak style.
[1913 Webster]
(h) Not prevalent or effective, or not felt to be
prevalent; not potent; feeble. "Weak prayers." --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
(i) Lacking in elements of political strength; not
wielding or having authority or energy; deficient in
the resources that are essential to a ruler or nation;
as, a weak monarch; a weak government or state.
[1913 Webster]
I must make fair weather yet awhile,
Till Henry be more weak, and I more strong.
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
(k) (Stock Exchange) Tending towards lower prices; as, a
weak market.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Gram.)
(a) Pertaining to, or designating, a verb which forms its
preterit (imperfect) and past participle by adding to
the present the suffix -ed, -d, or the variant form
-t; as in the verbs abash, abashed; abate, abated;
deny, denied; feel, felt. See Strong, 19
(a) .
(b) Pertaining to, or designating, a noun in Anglo-Saxon,
etc., the stem of which ends in -n. See Strong, 19
(b) .
[1913 Webster]
4. (Stock Exchange) Tending toward a lower price or lower
prices; as, wheat is weak; a weak market.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
5. (Card Playing) Lacking in good cards; deficient as to
number or strength; as, a hand weak in trumps.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
6. (Photog.) Lacking contrast; as, a weak negative.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
Note: Weak is often used in the formation of self-explaining
compounds; as, weak-eyed, weak-handed, weak-hearted,
weak-minded, weak-spirited, and the like.
[1913 Webster]
[1913 Webster]
Weak conjugation (Gram.), the conjugation of weak verbs; --
called also new conjugation, or regular conjugation,
and distinguished from the old conjugation, or
irregular conjugation.
Weak declension (Anglo-Saxon Gram.), the declension of weak
nouns; also, one of the declensions of adjectives.
Weak side, the side or aspect of a person's character or
disposition by which he is most easily affected or
influenced; weakness; infirmity.
weak sore or weak ulcer (Med.), a sore covered with pale,
flabby, sluggish granulations.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Weak \Weak\, v. t. & i. [Cf. AS. w?can. w[=a]cian. See Weak,
a.]
To make or become weak; to weaken. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
Never to seek weaking variety. --Marston.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
weak
adj 1: having little physical or spiritual strength; "a weak radio
signal"; "a weak link" [ant: strong]
2: overly diluted; thin and insipid; "washy coffee"; "watery
milk"; "weak tea" [syn: watery, washy]
3: lacking power [syn: powerless] [ant: powerful]
4: used of vowels or syllables; pronounced with little or no
stress; "a syllable that ends in a short vowel is a light
syllable"; "a weak stress on the second syllable" [syn: unaccented,
light]
5: having the attributes of man as opposed to e.g. divine
beings; "I'm only human"; "frail humanity" [syn: fallible,
frail, imperfect]
6: lacking force; feeble; "a forceless argument" [syn: forceless,
unforceful] [ant: forceful]
7: lacking physical strength or vitality; "a feeble old woman";
"her body looked sapless" [syn: decrepit, debile, feeble,
infirm, sapless, weakly]
8: used of verbs having standard (or regular) inflection
9: lacking physical strength or vigor
10: characterized by excessive softness or self-indulgence; "an
effeminate civilization" [syn: effeminate]
WordNet (r) 2.0
523 Moby Thesaurus words for "weak":
Adamic, Adamite, Adamitic, abulic, accented, accessible,
achromatic, achromic, afraid, airy, alveolar, amenable, anemic,
anile, anthropocentric, anthropological, apical, apico-alveolar,
apico-dental, articulated, ashen, ashy, assailable, assimilated,
asthenic, attackable, attenuate, attenuated, back, backsliding,
barely audible, barytone, beatable, bilabial, blear, bleared,
bleary, bled white, bloodless, blurred, blurry, boyish, broad,
bungling, cacuminal, cadaverous, careless, carnal, central,
cerebral, checked, chicken, chickenhearted, chloranemic, close,
colorless, confused, conquerable, consonant, consonantal,
continuant, coward, cowardly, cowed, crabbed, dark, daunted, dead,
deadly pale, deathly pale, debilitated, decrepit, decrescendo,
delicate, dental, diaphanous, dickey, dilute, diluted, dim, dimmed,
dingy, discolored, dismayed, dissimilated, distant, doddered,
doddering, doddery, dorsal, drooping, droopy, dull, earthy, easy,
easygoing, effete, emasculate, enervated, enfeebled, erring,
ethereal, etiolated, expugnable, exsanguinated, exsanguine,
exsanguineous, fade, faded, fagged, faint, faint-voiced,
fainthearted, fainting, faintish, fallen, fallow, fatigued,
fearful, featherweight, feeble, feebleminded, feeling faint, filmy,
fine, fine-drawn, finespun, finite, flabby, flaccid, flagging,
flat, flavorless, fleshly, flimsy, floppy, fluctuant, foggy,
footsore, forceless, fossilized, fragile, frail, frazzled, front,
funking, funky, fuzzy, gauzy, gentle, gerontal, gerontic, ghastly,
girlish, glide, glossal, glottal, gone, good and tired, gossamer,
gracile, gray, gruelly, gutless, guttural, haggard, half-heard,
half-seen, half-visible, hard, hazy, heavy, henhearted, hesitant,
high, hominal, homocentric, hueless, human, humanistic,
hypochromic, ill-defined, imbecile, impotent, imprecise,
impressionable, improbable, impure, inadequate, inane, incompetent,
inconceivable, inconclusive, inconspicuous, incredible, indefinite,
indifferent, indistinct, indistinguishable, ineffective,
ineffectual, inefficacious, inept, infirm, influenceable, insecure,
insipid, insubstantial, intimidated, intonated, invertebrate,
irresolute, jaded, jejune, labial, labiodental, labiovelar,
lackluster, lacy, languid, languorous, lapsed, lax, leaden,
lenient, light, lightweight, lily-livered, limber, limp, lingual,
liquid, listless, livid, loose, low, low-profile, lurid,
lusterless, lustless, malleable, man-centered, marrowless, mat,
mealy, merely glimpsed, mid, mild, milk-and-water, milk-livered,
milksoppish, milksoppy, misty, monophthongal, mortal, mossbacked,
moth-eaten, mousy, movable, muddy, mummylike, murmured, muted,
narrow, nasal, nasalized, negligent, nerveless, neutral,
no-account, obscure, occlusive, of easy virtue, of no account,
only human, open, open-minded, out of focus, overindulgent,
overpermissive, overtimid, overtimorous, oxytone, palatal,
palatalized, pale, pale as death, pale-faced, pallid, palsied,
panic-prone, panicky, papery, papery-skinned, pappy, pasty,
peccable, penetrable, permissive, persuadable, persuasible,
pervious, pharyngeal, pharyngealized, phonemic, phonetic, phonic,
pianissimo, piano, pigeonhearted, pitch, pitched, pithless,
plastic, pliable, pliant, pooped, poor, postlapsarian, posttonic,
powerless, pregnable, prodigal, pulpy, puny, rabbity, rare,
rarefied, ravaged with age, ready to drop, receptive, recidivist,
recidivistic, relaxed, remiss, responsive, retroflex, rickety,
rootless, rounded, rubbery, run ragged, run to seed, run-down,
rusty, sagging, sallow, sapless, savorless, scarcely heard, seedy,
semivisible, semivowel, senile, shadowy, shaky, shriveled, sickly,
sinewless, sissified, sissy, slack, slender, slenderish, slight,
slight-made, slim, slimmish, slinky, slipshod, sloppy, small, soft,
soft-sounding, soft-voiced, sonant, spiceless, spindly, spineless,
stale, stopped, strengthless, stressed, stricken in years, strong,
suasible, subaudible, subdued, subtle, suggestible, surd,
surmountable, susceptible, svelte, swayable, syllabic, sylphlike,
tallow-faced, tasteless, tellurian, tense, tenuous, thick, thin,
thin-bodied, thin-set, thin-spun, thinnish, threadlike, throaty,
timeworn, timid, timorous, tired, tired-winged, toilworn, tonal,
toneless, tonic, tottering, tottery, trimming, twangy, unaccented,
unangelic, unauthoritative, unbelievable, uncertain, unchaste,
unclean, unclear, uncolored, unconvincing, undefined, undependable,
unfit, unflavored, ungodly, ungood, unhardened, unmanly, unmanned,
unnerved, unplain, unproved, unqualified, unrecognizable,
unrefreshed, unreliable, unrestored, unrestrained, unrighteous,
unrigorous, unrounded, unsaintly, unsavory, unsound, unstable,
unstressed, unstrung, unsubstantial, unsuitable, unsure,
unsustained, unvirtuous, vacillating, vague, vapid, velar,
vincible, virtueless, vocalic, vocoid, voiced, voiceless, vowel,
vowellike, vulnerable, wan, wanton, washed-out, washy,
wasp-waisted, watered, watered-down, waterish, watery, wavering,
waxen, way-weary, wayward, wayworn, weak-kneed, weak-minded,
weak-voiced, weak-willed, weakened, weakhearted, weakly, wearied,
weariful, weary, weary-footed, weary-laden, weary-winged,
weary-worn, whey-faced, whispered, white, white-livered, wide,
willowy, wilting, wiredrawn, wishy-washy, wispy, withered,
without any weight, wizened, wobbly, worn, worn-down, yellow
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
|
|
|