I. ˈwēk adjective
( -er/-est )
Etymology: Middle English waike, weike, weke, from Old Norse veikr; akin to Old English wāc pliant, soft, weak, Old High German weih yielding, soft, Old English wīcan to yield, give way, Old High German wīhhan, Old Norse vīkja to move, turn, recede — more at week
1. : lacking strength : not strong: as
a. : deficient in strength of body
weak with hunger
sick man welcomed him as eagerly as his weak state permitted — Charles Reade
b. : not able to sustain or exert much weight, pressure, or strain : having small capability of exerting or resisting force
weak rope
weak joint in a chair
red planet possesses only a weak gravity — J.G.Vaeth
weak ignition spark
c. : not able to resist external force or withstand attack : easily subdued or overcome
even if the weak witness tells the truth he is a slender reed — L.P.Stryker
d. : readily subject to failure, collapse, or breakdown
weak heart
weak nerves
2.
a. : mentally or intellectually deficient : lacking judgment or discernment
a superstition imposing only on weak intellects
b. : not having full conviction : not firmly decided : wavering, vacillating
realize how weak the love of truth is in the majority — W.R.Inge
c. : resulting from or indicating lack of judgment, discernment, or firmness : unwise , foolish
not generosity but mere weak indulgence
d. : not able to withstand temptation or persuasion : easily impressed or swayed
weak virtue
weak determination
men are so weak and women so unscrupulous — W.S.Maugham
3. : not having power to convince : not supported by force of truth or logic
weak argument
weak case at law
4.
a. : lacking in power to perform properly a function or office
weak eyes
weak sense of direction
b. : lacking skill or proficiency
a good fielder but a weak batter
special tutoring for the weaker students
c. : showing or indicating a lack of skill or aptitude
mathematics was his weakest subject
his penetration of human psychology and his creation of character is weak — R.A.Hall b.1911
d. : wanting in vigor of expression or artistic effect
weak line
weak retort
a painfully weak story apparently meant to be fantasy — Raymond Walters b.1912
5. : lacking force of utterance or sound : not sonorous : faint
sick man spoke in a weak voice
weak protest
6.
a. : not thoroughly or abundantly impregnated with the usual or required ingredients : dilute
weak coffee
weak acid solution
b. : lacking normal intensity or potency
weak colors
weak strain of virus
weak winter sunlight
c. : lacking contrast : thin
weak photographic negative
d. of flour : made from a soft wheat and containing a relatively low percentage of gluten and lacking cohesiveness — opposed to strong
7.
a. : not having or exerting authority or political power
weak king
weak government
b. : not equal to the need or emergency : ineffective , impotent
weak attempts at resistance
weak measures to control crime
8.
a. of a verb : belonging to a conjugation that forms the past tense and past participle by adding the suffix -ed or -d or -t (as dash, dashed; grate, grated; deal, dealt ) : regular — opposed to strong
b. of a noun or adjective declension : having the less full case inflection characteristic of Proto-Germanic stems in -n (as Old English oxa, oxan; German ochs, ochsen ) — opposed to strong
c. : of or relating to a class of Hebrew or Syriac consonants or to a verb having one or more such consonants in the root
9.
a. : bearing the minimal degree of stress occurring in the language : light
weak syllable
weak stress
b. : having little or no stress and obscured vowel sound : unemphatic — used of monosyllabic pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries
would is often heard in its weak form 'd
10. : tending toward a lower price
wheat is weak
a weak market
11. : having only a slight degree of ionization in solution — used of acids and bases; opposed to strong
Synonyms:
weak , feeble , frail , fragile , infirm , and decrepit mean, in common, not strong enough to bear strain or pressure or stand up under difficulty or effort. weak , of wider application than all the rest and interchangeable with any of them, implies deficiency, inferiority, or impairment of strength, power, skill, control, or influence
a sick and weak old man
a weak rung of a ladder
Antonius was weak and vicious, and Catiline could mould him as he pleased — J.A.Froude
a weak, timid face — Sherwood Anderson
to say that one part of a painting, drama, or novel is too weak, means that some related part is too strong — John Dewey
a weak excuse
a weak police department
feeble suggests extreme pitiable weakness, usually of persons or their acts or utterances
a feeble old man
a feeble attempt to resist oppression
a feeble cough
a feeble excuse
a feeble imagination
frail , implying physical weakness, suggests rather a natural delicacy or slightness of constitution than an impairment of strength
seemed rather frail, for there was a delicate pallor on his high, intelligent forehead and there was an invalid's languor in his whole attitude — Jean Stafford
begins to lose the rather frail grasp she has on reality — New Yorker
beauty, that frailest and most elusive of concepts — W.H.Auden
fragile , frequently interchangeable with frail , stresses the idea of extremely easy destructibility
a tall fragile vase
the spirit of a little boy is a fragile thing and not to be pushed around beyond endurance — Christine Govan
a wild deer, fragile and untamed — Elinor Wylie
infirm implies loss especially of physical strength, and a consequent instability or unsoundness, often implying illness or old age
the present king, infirm both in body and mind — A.T.Mahan
mighty in reasoning but infirm in moral feeling — W.L.Sullivan
an old man too infirm to go out in wet weather
lack of direction in the main plan, infirm judgments, and cowardly estimates — Maurice Bowra
decrepit applies to things or persons worn out or broken down by use or age
grown so decrepit and feeble with old age as to threaten demise altogether — W.M.Thackeray
a decrepit ramshackle building
our own civilization appears to be growing decrepit and ready to fall — Bertrand Russell
government that replaced the decrepit monarchy and corrupt dictatorship — Oscar Handlin
II. noun
( -s )
: the thinnest most flexible portion of a foil blade : the foremost one third of the blade
III. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English waiken, weiken, from waike, weike weak
archaic : weaken