WEAKEN


Meaning of WEAKEN in English

verb

COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES

fatally flawed/weakened/damaged etc

Bolton’s idea was fatally flawed.

undermine/damage/weaken sb’s confidence (= make someone have less confidence )

The situation in the US was undermining foreign confidence in the dollar.

undermine/weaken sb’s authority (= make someone’s authority weaker )

I wasn’t trying to undermine your authority.

weaken sb’s position (= give someone a bigger disadvantage )

The Prime Minister's position had been weakened by allegations of financial mismanagement.

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADVERB

already

If the digestion is already weakened then it will not cope with a totally raw food diet.

considerably

Since the Conservatives came to power they have considerably weakened local government and greater centralisation has been the consequence.

At the same time, formal affirmative action programs are likely to be weakened considerably in the move toward flexible organizations.

fatally

But on the day of reckoning a divided Kurdistan could be a fatally weakened one.

The arms scandal had fatally weakened the partnership.

further

The Supreme Court is expected to weaken further the nationwide constitutional protection for abortion early next year.

In the case of spending and tax legislation, majority rule is thus further weakened .

The political in-fighting further weakened the already fragile euro.

One way is by operating on a person, but this can be dangerous because it can further weaken a patient.

The mujaheddin attack was further weakened by internal rivalries.

The present contest has further weakened the Campaign Group.

The transference of the principle of democratic centralism from party to state organization further weakens accountability and the role of elected bodies.

greatly

Once machines seriously began to replace hand-setting, the argument about apprenticeship would be greatly weakened .

The ultimate effect is greatly weakened if an older drug is ineffective against the mutated virus.

These two internal rows greatly weakened the movement.

seriously

The tying of aid for imports has seriously weakened the policy of standardizing equipment.

He knows Clinton will not propose and Congress will not enact legislation to seriously weaken provisions of the new law.

In effect the Unity Campaign was already seriously weakened .

The effect was devastating, seriously weakening Mrs Thatcher's hold on the premiership and making a leadership contest virtually inevitable.

Then, because of their geographical position, they were seriously weakened by the Viking onslaught down the east coast.

Moreover his domestic position was seriously weakened by his obvious lack of success as a diplomat and a military commander.

■ NOUN

authority

And though Karadzic and Mladic remain free, the indictments weaken their authority and ensure they do not leave the country.

case

The absence of this crucial witness seemed likely to weaken the case against Papandreou.

Where Clinton speaks with one voice, they speak with several, weakening their philosophical case .

This move weakens the case for a separate legislature at Stormont.

Sending Galindo off with the national title might weaken the case for the United States.

Despite the attempt to treat the Pythagorean example as an exception, it can not but weaken Goody's case .

dollar

But yesterday's sales of Ecus highlighted the conflict between official efforts to defend the pound and weaken the dollar .

When the yen weakens , dollar-based investors see their total return eroded.

He forecast that the yen will weaken against the dollar for the next two years.

economy

Budget savings will weaken an already sickly economy .

A weakening economy might further complicate Bush's budget math.

Lloyd said he was concerned that a weakening domestic economy would hurt the railroads in 1996.

People are looking for a weakening economy and supply is rising.

government

The centralization from above, and decentralization to markets and consumers below, has weakened local government .

In a meeting, Mrs Aquino said the rebels had a started a disinformation campaign to weaken her government .

Since the Conservatives came to power they have considerably weakened local government and greater centralisation has been the consequence.

movement

The depression which spread from 1899 only temporarily weakened the strike movement and aggravated unemployment and urban discontent.

But the unions' unpopularity in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and Labour's electoral decline also weakened the movement .

These two internal rows greatly weakened the movement .

position

Various new findings have weakened the position of the sceptics on climate change.

Most observers believed that he caved in only because of his weakened political position due to the Watergate scandal.

These things weaken the position of the Black woman, and have been done deliberately.

Pilger had agreed but had apparently not realized how this weakened his position .

The weakening position can be traced back to the Hatfield crash last October, in which four people died.

This weakened his position as a symbol of the national struggle.

This omission certainly weakened his position during the struggle that lay ahead.

If Gaddafi survived, would it weaken or strengthen his position as leader?

power

Labour would disrupt industrial peace by weakening the power of management and the courts.

The divisions amongst the Christians weakened their power of resistance and may have contributed to the Ottoman victories of the sixteenth century.

structure

In the case of monuments and historical buildings, the erosion and damage can destroy carvings and statues and weaken building structures .

Eventually the water weakens the structure , and the walls and floors collapse.

It is possible to remove the interior bulkhead but it supports the sides of the body and its removal weakens the structure .

But such barriers, according to bridge manager Bob Warren, would weaken the structure by lowering its resistance to wind.

Of particular interest are genes that reduce the amount of a substance called lignin, or that weaken lignin's chemical structure .

I do not like this move at all since it gratuitously weakens Black's pawn structure in the centre.

This so weakened the structure that the car was withdrawn and dismantled, revealing the unglamorous Fleetwood car 141 underneath.

Decaying steelwork and water leaks have weakened the tunnel structures , and many stations are in need of major refurbishment.

system

Such infections may leave people more vulnerable to the risk of infection by weakening their immune system .

Infections in the bloodstream, urinary tract or lungs usually are dangerous only to people with other illnesses and weakened immune systems .

Earlier research has suggested a link between grief and a weakened immune system .

Salmonella can cause a little diarrhea in some people, but can be deadly for those with immature or weakened immune systems .

This weakening of life-supporting systems poses health risks.

Here it sits waiting for a dose of stress to weaken your immune system when out it pops.

yen

When the yen weakens , dollar-based investors see their total return eroded.

He forecast that the yen will weaken against the dollar for the next two years.

Then, as the yen weakened again to 104. 2 in mid-September, the Nikkei bounced back to 18474. 38.

■ VERB

begin

For three hours until the sun began to weaken he watched the boy begging for water.

That sickness had begun to weaken his spirit as the treatment went on and on, seemingly without success.

And the D-mark has lately begun to weaken .

By the 1970s, that binding force began to weaken and it has been gradually unravelling ever since.

At the same time the conservative and pacifying influence of the Orthodox Church began to weaken markedly.

continue

It also predicts that real commodity prices will continue to weaken , with another average decline of 2 percent projected for 1988.

Discounting is expected to continue to weaken earnings into the second quarter.

strengthen

Another was that generous outside help would strengthen , not weaken , Mr Yeltsin's position at home.

Graduated lines can strengthen or weaken an arrow.

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

By 1945, the country's power was weakening considerably.

Hartman was weakened by flu, but still managed to play.

Her long illness has weakened her so much that she has difficulty walking.

Some parents are worried that public education weakens the family's influence.

The city's defences had been weakened by enemy shelling.

The explosion severely weakened the foundations of the house.

The soldiers' morale was beginning to weaken .

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

Birthday shows us that weakening is inevitable, but not always fatal.

By launching the new forum Mr Heseltine is getting his own back on the now weakened Mr Lamont.

Inside the house the heat weakened only slightly.

It is a manner of speech now increasingly rare in the world, faded and ever weakening like a lost radio signal.

It seems, too, that traditional values that prescribe a life of domesticity are weakening.

Pleasure, a rarity at any rate, only serves to weaken one; what one really needs is stamina and discipline.

That is one reason so many Republicans want him to remain in place even in a weakened condition.

Trying to please everyone inevitably leads to compromise, and that in turn weakens individual expression.

Longman DOCE5 Extras English vocabulary.      Дополнительный английский словарь Longman DOCE5.