weed

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“
Emerson says a weed is a plant whose virtues we have not yet discovered; but surely it is no small virtue in the iron-weed to brighten the roadsides and low meadows throughout the summer with bright clusters of bloom.

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Definitions (52)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (15)

  1. noun A plant considered undesirable, unattractive, or troublesome, especially one growing where it is not wanted, as in a garden.
  2. noun Rank growth of such plants.
  3. noun A water plant, especially seaweed.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (28)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (50)

  • Any branch of the sea-weed which is deprived of its FLOATS sinks at once to the bottom of the water, and these floats are not likely to be the first parts developed from the spores. —  Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence
  • Those of you who feel the weed is a benign substance are not very informed. —  بالاترین
  • Sea weed is an endangered specie and all that plus you might bring up a Dolphin and you can't kill those microbes! —  Latest Articles
  • Even if the weed is at the right growth stage it has either been too cold or, more recently, there's been no chance of finding a dry leaf. —  FWi - All News
  • Stale seed-beds may not result in a large blackgrass flushes - although the weed is already emerging in unharvested wheat crops. —  FWi - All News
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Etymologies (7)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old English wēod, herb, grass, weed.
  2. Middle English wede, garment, from Old English wǣd.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. from Middle English weed, wed, weod. wied, a weed, from Anglo-Saxon wéod, wíod = Old Saxon Middle Dutch wiod, Dutch wiede, a weed, = Low German woden, woen, plural, the green stalks and leaves of turnips, etc.
  2. from Middle English weeden, weoden. from Anglo-Saxon weodian, weed, = Dutch wieden = Low German weden, ween = G. dial, wieten, weed: see weed, n.
  3. from Middle English wede, wæde, from Anglo-Saxon wæmacr;de, neuter, wæd, feminine, a garment, = Old Saxon wādi = OFries. wēde, wēd = Middle Dutch wade, waede, a garment, = Old High German Middle High German wāt, clothing, accoutrements, armor, G. obsolete wat (ef. G. leinwand, linen cloth, canvas, with interloping n, by false analogy with gewand, garment, from Old High German Middle High German līnwāt = Anglo-Saxon līnwæmacr;d) = Icelandic vāth, a piece of stuff or cloth, also a garment (see wad, wadmal); cf. Goth, ga-widan (preterit gawath), bind together; Zend ✓vadh, clothe.
  4. Scots also weid; origin obscure.
  5. Perhaps a dial. variant of weight.
 

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