weak

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
In general, however, it may be said that those whom humanitarians and philanthropists call the weak are the ones through whom the productive and conservative forces of society are wasted.

View all »
Definitions (56)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (16)

  1. adjective Lacking physical strength, energy, or vigor; feeble.
  2. adjective Likely to fail under pressure, stress, or strain; lacking resistance: a weak link in a chain.
  3. adjective Lacking firmness of character or strength of will.
13 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (26)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (12)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • Mussolini and the Italians worked with the Germans in WWII, and when Italy was weak from the American's attack on the south, Germany sent in some of their own troops to help counter the offensive. —  Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions
  • Once the shining economic success story of Europe, the country has been routinely described as the weak link in the eurozone in recent months and even suffered the ignominy of being cited as —  TIME.com: Top Stories
  • The truth is we need government or a big daddy because a great number of people are irresponsible and weak, which is one of the reasons I'm not an anarchist or an advocate of laissez-faire capitalism. —  Home
  • But the Japanese strains were found only in patients already treated with Tamiflu, and they were "weak" - that is, they did not transmit to other people. —  RutlandHerald.com
  • My jam-music background is weak which is why I read here ... and I love this disco-biscuit-stuff. —  Live Music Blog.com
More examples »
 

Tags

weak hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Words tagged weak

Stats

This word has been looked up 187 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

feeble ·  strong ·  foolish ·  thin

Used in the same contextWord Family

weak:   weaker ·  weakest
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English weike, from Old Norse veikr, pliant; see weik-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English weik, weyk, waik; wayk, a northern form (from Icelandic veikr, veykr) taking the place of the southern form woke, woe, wake, wac, from Anglo-Saxon wac, waac, pliant, weak, easily bent, = Old Saxon wēk = Dutch week = Middle Low German wēk, Low German week = Old High German weih, Middle High German G. weich = Icelandic veikr, veykr, rarely vākr = Swedish vek = Danish veg, pliant, weak; from the verb appearing in Anglo-Saxon wīcan (preterit wāc, past participle wicen) = Old Saxon wīkan = OFries. wīka, wiaka = Dutch wijken = Old High German wīkkan, MUG. wīcken, German weichen, give way, yield, = Icelandic vīkja (preterit veyk, past participle vikinn) = Swedish vika = Danish vige, turn, turn aside, veer; cf. Greek εἴκειν (for ςείκειν, yield, give way, = L. ✓ vic in vītare (for *vicitare), shun, avoid, *vix, vicis, change. To the same root are referred wick, wicker.
  2. from Middle English weyken, wayken. woken. wokien, wakien, from Anglo-Saxon wācian, become weak, languish, vacillate (= Ml), weecken, become soft, Dutch weeken, soak, = Old High German weichan, Middle High German G. weiclien, become weak), wæmacr;can, make weak, weaken, soften, afflict, from wāc, weak: see weak, a.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/wik/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word a few times a day.

Recently looked up

dge · reconcile · aboutthe · Pumpernickel · purveyor

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

wub wub · merch · these grunts every eight hours · haul it off to our darkest dungeon · send for a doctor