adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bad/weak heart (= an unhealthy heart )
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The effort proved too much for her weak heart.
a feeble/flimsy/weak excuse (= one that is difficult to believe )
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Joe muttered some feeble excuse about having a headache.
a strong/weak leader
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She’s a strong leader and an intelligent woman.
a weak chin (= small in proportion to the face, and not square in shape )
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He’s grown a beard to cover his weak chin.
a weak position (= a situation in which you have a disadvantage )
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Someone who is desperate to sell their house is in a weak position.
a weak will
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It's a myth that people are fat because of a weak will.
be in a strong/weak etc position
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We are in a good position to help.
had a weak spot for
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I’ve always had a weak spot for chocolate.
sb’s weak point (= something that they are not good at )
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Be honest about assessing your weak points.
strong/weak
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I needed some strong coffee to wake me up.
weak (= from a country with a weak economy )
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The fund was set up to support weak currencies.
weak (= one that often gets infections )
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As a child her chest was weak.
weak
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You have your tea weak, don't you Chris?
weak/ailing/depressed
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The economy is weak and consumer confidence is low.
weaker sex
weak/faint
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The boy's pulse was very weak.
weak/faint
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The signals were too weak for the receiver to pick up.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
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Nation states are not as weak as some make out-they do have the power to seek alternatives.
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Two days later Janir and I were still as weak as young mice.
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She's as weak as a kitten.
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Anything in the form of participation would be viewed as weak management.
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This could be interpreted as weak and lacking authority; it could equally be interpreted as polite and considerate.
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Nor does it have to: we know his fears are as weak as his desires.
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A year ago he was as weak and unloved a Democratic presidential candidate as it was possible to be.
much
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This comprises a few intense lines and a much weaker continuous background.
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Some quasi-experimental designs do not include a control group and are therefore much weaker designs.
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At present there are two programs playing at Master levels and three others not much weaker than that.
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Bradley said the bill that passed was much weaker than the original version, which spelled out remedies for job discrimination.
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In fact the western Empire was probably in a much weaker position after 406 than the sources suggest.
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In popular music, such functions are either lacking or much weaker .
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The current, away from the mainstream, was much weaker .
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However, bow shocks become wrapped around blunt obstacles and become much weaker the further away they are from the obstacle head.
rather
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The rather weak reason given was the waste of the resources used in training these people.
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Apparently he was a rather weak , inadequate man who never was able to make much of a living.
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Flight rather weak , but buoyant swimmers, like tiny gulls, often spinning round in circles and picking insects off surface.
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This, however, is the second rather weak argument, the simplicity argument.
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They tend to be somewhat static, so the contours of phrases can be rather weak .
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Indeed, his technical electioneering skills remained rather weak .
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Were his eyes blue or grey? Rather weak , Nicholas remembered, probably short-sighted.
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The problem, though, according to Keynesians is that stages 1 and 2 are unpredictable and perhaps rather weak .
relatively
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Such a state of affairs provides the seller with a unique opportunity to exploit the relatively weak bargaining position of the investor.
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Sometimes the child who is relatively weaker in visual-spatial abilities may be stronger in the auditory-verbal processing area.
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Hot, hydrothermally altered ground and relatively weak fumaroles, but no active hot springs, are found on these volcanoes.
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Norris has a relatively weak chin but more experience than Trinidad, which could give Whitaker some trouble.
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However the study shows that the degree quality of the AEs is relatively weak .
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With a child who is relatively weaker visually you can emphasize play that builds these skills.
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Performance was relatively weaker with small scale acoustic recital and chamber material where a certain hardness sometimes intruded.
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Like many children who are relatively weak in these skills, the elementary school years were hard for Louisa.
so
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It's so weak , so dismissive, like the girl's body was a cupcake and you took a nibble.
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Why is the West so strong, and why are we so weak and vulnerable?
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Carrie felt impatient with her - no grown-up should be so weak and so silly - but she was sorry as well.
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State health officials have warned that some of those structures are so weak that they could collapse at any time.
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At 6.40am he tried for another bearing, but their signal was now so weak , Darwin were unable to comply.
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When the local Sisters took him in, he was so weak that he could not sit up.
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His legs were so weak that they shook beneath him.
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He was so weak he had to be carried out.
too
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He threw out no sounding parties too weak to guarantee their own safety, and he lost none of them.
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But the municipal oligarchy was too weak to pursue its course for long, and eventually came to terms with the state.
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Seal pelts are thin to the point of transparency and seabird chicks are too weak to stand.
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The generals and admirals said they had always been against the blockade as being too weak and now they wanted immediate action.
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Even for the more careful managers, their decade or so of good fortune had far too weak a base to survive.
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A few cuts of sun break through the roof and walls but once there they are too weak to shift for themselves.
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Almost certainly it felt that its position was still too weak .
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She was too weak and malnourished to eat.
unexpectedly
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Other companies issuing profit warnings or unexpectedly weak earnings included Hutchison Technology Inc., down 6 to 36 1 / 2.
very
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He was very weak , but able to talk.
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The woman in the next bed was in her late seventies, very weak , and obviously malnourished.
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She was being carried, almost, badly shot and very weak .
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The reason is that there is a very weak legal basis for television regulation.
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Suppose that person is a stranger and is very weak .
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I feel very weak being without protection.
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The north-south winds are very weak by comparison.
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It was a positive step but it was very weak in the way it sought to cover the children.
■ NOUN
currency
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This could not support weak currencies indefinitely.
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That will lead them to seek weaker currencies to boost their exports, traders said.
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Attention on world money markets then switched to the next weakest currency - the pound.
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While governments dither, funds leave those countries with weak currencies and go to those countries with strong currencies.
demand
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Similar properties tend to have got a little stale, some not having taken account of weaker demand with their original asking prices.
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It blamed weak demand in the third and fourth quarters.
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Excess capacity and weak demand continued to undermine performance in the downstream oil and chemicals sectors.
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Issuing B shares usually raises less money because of weak demand .
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In the recent period of excessive unemployment and weak demand for labour, the validity of this assumption is less clear.
dollar
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In London, light trading on currency markets saw the pound gain 10 points against a weak dollar to close at 1.4843.
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And, Mr Trittin notes, some of the buyers were large foreign financial firms, taking advantage of the weak dollar .
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But with a weak dollar , it will quickly burn out in faster core inflation.
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Profits at auto makers and other exporters could be tarnished by a weaker dollar against the yen.
earnings
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Co., fell for the third straight week on reports of weak earnings and a slack retail climate.
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Manufacturing Co. reported weaker earnings than expected.
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Other companies issuing profit warnings or unexpectedly weak earnings included Hutchison Technology Inc., down 6 to 36 1 / 2.
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While weak earnings forecasts caused many stocks to fall sharply, unexpectedly strong outlooks or actual earnings were rewarded.
economy
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The debt burden is weighing more and more heavily on the weakest economies .
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Rates may continue to fall, but earnings will have a tough time climbing in a weak economy .
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It builds in and reinforces their dominance, but it damages the weaker economies .
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A weaker economy means inflation is less likely to eat into the value of bonds' interest and principal payments.
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And Mr Bush's economic advisers fear that any extra regulation could further damage an already weak economy .
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Sales across the country were slower than expected this year as consumers grappled with higher debts and concern about a weaker economy .
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Brochier, which restores piping networks, has announced a restructuring plan to deal with a weak economy in its key markets.
form
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This reply comes in a stronger and a weaker form , but in either form it has clearly got some point.
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This group of pronouns has weak forms pronounced with weaker vowels than the and of their strong forms.
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We must distinguish between weak forms and contracted forms.
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The freedom and dignity of autonomous man seem to be preserved when only weak forms of non-aversive control are used.
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In its weakest form it can be a moistening of the eyes on hearing a moving poem or line of music.
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Bounded rationality is a weak form of rationality.
heart
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He also learned that Sir Charles believed these supernatural stories, and that he had a weak heart .
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A weak heart , another Vandervort inheritance, like the table and the portrait.
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However, this often happens with deaths which are caused by weak hearts .
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Sir Charles' weak heart had failed, and this had caused his death.
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My grandfather had a weak heart , and he died in this way.
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The nymph attempted a final arabesque but the effort proved too much for her weak heart .
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Because our usual enzymes can not tackle this large molecule, its presence may cause problems for people with weak hearts .
link
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Breaking the weak link proved a bigger hazard than actual cable breaks or power failures.
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Anderson is the weakest link in his.
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With such fundamental changes involved, a business can only be as strong as its weakest link .
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You also learn in combat that your flight is only as strong as its weakest link .
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The layer reinforces the wall's weak link - the mortar.
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This time, it was the primacy of the office as gathering place that was the weak link in the chain.
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This is the weakest link in the chain, and we have a system for chasing referees and eventually going elsewhere.
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Therefore, the leadership challenge is to have no weak links .
point
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Positive interpretation of weaknesses Be honest about assessing your weak points as well.
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This solution came to the rescue of the system; but it was the weak point that all its critics attacked.
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What are his strong and weak points ?
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That is why molecular studies designed to find the weak points in the viral attack must continue, Trono said.
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We examined our weak points , and turned them into strengths.
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The weakest point of the 320SLi is its screen.
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However, in most of these, effusive approval is showered upon her, and her weak points are minimized.
points
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He had not dealt with the bishop's weak points nor, according to Hooker, had he carried the audience with him.
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Scattered in pursuit, they provided perfect weak points for our counterattack.
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Positive interpretation of weaknesses Be honest about assessing your weak points as well.
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That is why molecular studies designed to find the weak points in the viral attack must continue, Trono said.
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What are his strong and weak points ?
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We examined our weak points , and turned them into strengths.
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Are you naturally more cautious, preferring to test the strength of your enemy before striking at his weak points ?
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However, in most of these, effusive approval is showered upon her, and her weak points are minimized.
position
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It might seem, then, that the anti-realist is in a peculiarly weak position .
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De Gaulle needed the Big Lie to help build up his otherwise weak position in the eyes of the allies.
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Parliament, however, has a far weaker position .
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A desperate seller is in a weak position .
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In fact the western Empire was probably in a much weaker position after 406 than the sources suggest.
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Khrushchev was in the weaker position at home, since Eisenhower was almost immune to criticism, especially on military matters.
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Politically such change will almost certainly reduce even further the already weak position of high need interests.
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The Bruins appear to have strengthened their weakest position , the secondary.
smile
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Instead he gave a weak smile and fingered the locket, through the cloth of his lapels.
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Bob gives me a weak smile .
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She gave me a weak smile and a fluttery little wave.
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He gives me a weak smile , the smile of a ma1n who knows he has been a fool.
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He gave me a weak smile and hiked his chest protector up to his nose.
spot
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Rheumatic fever as a child, so the infection settled there, on the weakest spot .
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Fogarty told me he was eleven when he understood his own weak spot .
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If this type of interviewer senses a weak spot he or she will hang on in there - mercilessly.
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So while the weather is reasonably dry, check the exterior for weak spots in the defences.
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A young teenage girl often becomes hypercritical of her mum-and knows exactly how to hit her weak spots .
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Its only weak spot is in coping with bigger potholes, which send a jarring crash through the bodyshell.
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He had two fundamental weak spots .
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Find a weak spot and pick at it.
syllable
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The distribution of strong and weak syllables is a subject that will be met in several later chapters.
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Elision is a closely related subject, and in considering intonation the difference between strong and weak syllables is also important.
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In this chapter we look at the general nature of weak syllables .
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Not all weak syllables contain, though many do.
yen
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Solomon said the weaker yen is likely to start weighing on earnings.
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A weak yen creates havoc in several ways for Detroit.
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To be sure, some investors feel the impact of a weaker yen on bonds may be limited.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
the spirit is willing (but the flesh is weak)
the weaker sex
weak spot
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A young teenage girl often becomes hypercritical of her mum-and knows exactly how to hit her weak spots .
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Find a weak spot and pick at it.
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Fogarty told me he was eleven when he understood his own weak spot .
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He had two fundamental weak spots .
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If this type of interviewer senses a weak spot he or she will hang on in there - mercilessly.
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Its only weak spot is in coping with bigger potholes, which send a jarring crash through the bodyshell.
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Rheumatic fever as a child, so the infection settled there, on the weakest spot .
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So while the weather is reasonably dry, check the exterior for weak spots in the defences.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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a weak excuse
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a weak radio signal
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a weak , indecisive principal
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Be careful - that ladder looks a little weak .
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Betty was too weak to get out of bed.
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Do you like your tea strong or weak ?
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He came across as a weak and indecisive leader.
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I can't go running - I've got a weak heart.
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In 1949-50 China was a weak , vulnerable country devastated by war.
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In the weak light inside the bus Tom couldn't see to read.
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Martin is a weak swimmer.
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Recent elections have left Christian Democrats weak .
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She felt weak with emotion at the sight of him.
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the weak glow of the dashboard lights
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The actors are good, but the plot is weak .
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The child was too weak to undergo a transplant operation.
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The dollar was weaker on Monday.
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The soldiers were weak from hunger and exhaustion.
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These policies failed because the government was weak and ineffective.
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Unfortunately, our leader was a weak and indecisive man.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Fools rush on war to make a weaker country their slave.
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Oil companies fell in response to weaker crude oil and natural gas prices.
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One of the men was ill and very weak and would have to be brought out on a stretcher.
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Some critics have considered it to be too weak and idiosyncratic to carry responsibility for major public and social services.
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Technology shares, weak all day, ended near their lows.
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The more lethargic, weak and ill the infant, the greater is the urgency and need for expert advice.
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These very weak stones are rich in water, which is bound up in both hydrated salts and clay minerals.