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Weak   /wik/   Listen
adjective
Weak  adj.  (compar. weaker; superl. weakest)  
1.
Wanting physical strength. Specifically:
(a)
Deficient in strength of body; feeble; infirm; sickly; debilitated; enfeebled; exhausted. "A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man." "Weak with hunger, mad with love."
(b)
Not able to sustain a great weight, pressure, or strain; as, a weak timber; a weak rope.
(c)
Not firmly united or adhesive; easily broken or separated into pieces; not compact; as, a weak ship.
(d)
Not stiff; pliant; frail; soft; as, the weak stalk of a plant.
(e)
Not able to resist external force or onset; easily subdued or overcome; as, a weak barrier; as, a weak fortress.
(f)
Lacking force of utterance or sound; not sonorous; low; small; feeble; faint. "A voice not soft, weak, piping, and womanish."
(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.
(h)
Lacking ability for an appropriate function or office; as, weak eyes; a weak stomach; a weak magistrate; a weak regiment, or army.
2.
Not possessing or manifesting intellectual, logical, moral, or political strength, vigor, etc. Specifically: -
(a)
Feeble of mind; wanting discernment; lacking vigor; spiritless; as, a weak king or magistrate. "To think every thing disputable is a proof of a weak mind and captious temper." "Origen was never weak enough to imagine that there were two Gods."
(b)
Resulting from, or indicating, lack of judgment, discernment, or firmness; unwise; hence, foolish. "If evil thence ensue, She first his weak indulgence will accuse."
(c)
Not having full confidence or conviction; not decided or confirmed; vacillating; wavering. "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations."
(d)
Not able to withstand temptation, urgency, persuasion, etc.; easily impressed, moved, or overcome; accessible; vulnerable; as, weak resolutions; weak virtue. "Guard thy heart On this weak side, where most our nature fails."
(e)
Wanting in power to influence or bind; as, weak ties; a weak sense of honor of duty.
(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." "A case so weak... hath much persisted in."
(g)
Wanting in point or vigor of expression; as, a weak sentence; a weak style.
(h)
Not prevalent or effective, or not felt to be prevalent; not potent; feeble. "Weak prayers."
(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. "I must make fair weather yet awhile, Till Henry be more weak, and I more strong."
(j)
(Stock Exchange) Tending towards lower prices; as, a weak market.
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).
4.
(Stock Exchange) Tending toward a lower price or lower prices; as, wheat is weak; a weak market.
5.
(Card Playing) Lacking in good cards; deficient as to number or strength; as, a hand weak in trumps.
6.
(Photog.) Lacking contrast; as, a weak negative. 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.
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.


verb
Weak  v. t. & v. i.  To make or become weak; to weaken. (R.) "Never to seek weaking variety."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Weak" Quotes from Famous Books



... while poetry, the production of the poet, is as necessary to universal man as the atmosphere, and as acceptable, the poet is regarded with that mingling of compassion and undervaluation, and perhaps awe, which once attached to the weak-minded and insane, and which is sometimes expressed by the term "inspired idiot." However the poet may have been petted and crowned, however his name may have been diffused among peoples, I doubt not that the popular estimate of him has always been substantially ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... the throne was in the bloom of life: he had just completed his twenty-fifth year. He had been weak and delicate in childhood: among the defects from which he suffered was that of stammering, which he did not get over throughout life; but he had grown up stronger in other ways than had been expected. ...
— A History of England Principally in the Seventeenth Century, Volume I (of 6) • Leopold von Ranke
... observation I laid down the book, as it appeared to me that he was quite unaware of his propensity; and without a sense of your fault, how can repentance and amendment be expected? He became more feeble and exhausted every day, and, at last, was so weak that he could scarcely raise himself in his bed. One afternoon he said, "Peter, I shall make my will, not that I am going to kick the bucket just yet; but still it is every man's duty to set his house in order, and it will amuse me; so fetch ...
— Peter Simple and The Three Cutters, Vol. 1-2 • Frederick Marryat
... feel the vivifying warmth of another summer sun; and it is in this persuasion that I begin to write my tragic history. Perhaps a history such as mine had better die with me, but a feeling that I cannot define leads me on and I am too weak both in body and mind to resist the slightest impulse. While life was strong within me I thought indeed that there was a sacred horror in my tale that rendered it unfit for utterance, and now about to die I pollute its mystic terrors. It is as the wood of the Eumenides none but ...
— Mathilda • Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
... whole, the Anglo-Saxon spectator finds it difficult to understand how it can exercise any influence for good on the moral character of a youth, or determine, as the Emperor says it does, a disposition which is cowardly or weak by nature to bravery or strength, save of a momentary and merely physical kind. The Englishman who has been present at a Mensur is rather inclined to think the atmosphere too much that of a shambles, and the chief result of the ...
— William of Germany • Stanley Shaw


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