weak

weak: /week/, adj., weaker, weakest.

1. not strong; liable to yield, break, or collapse under pressure or strain; fragile; frail: a weak fortress; a weak spot in armor.

2. lacking in bodily strength or healthy vigor, as from age or sickness; feeble; infirm: a weak old man; weak eyes.

3. not having much political strength, governing power, or authority: a weak nation; a weak ruler.

4. lacking in force, potency, or efficacy; impotent, ineffectual, or inadequate: weak sunlight; a weak wind.

5. lacking in rhetorical or creative force or effectiveness: a weak reply to the charges; one of the author's weakest novels.

6. lacking in logical or legal force or soundness: a weak argument.

7. deficient in mental power, intelligence, or judgment: a weak mind.

8. not having much moral strength or firmness, resolution, or force of character: to prove weak under temptation; weak compliance.

9. deficient in amount, volume, loudness, intensity, etc.; faint; slight: a weak current of electricity; a weak pulse.

10. deficient, lacking, or poor in something specified: a hand weak in trumps; I'm weak in spelling.

11. deficient in the essential or usual properties or ingredients: weak tea.

12. unstressed, as a syllable, vowel, or word.

13. (of Germanic verbs) inflected with suffixes, without inherited change of the root vowel, as English work, worked, or having a preterit ending in a dental, as English bring, brought.

14. (of Germanic nouns and adjectives) inflected with endings originally appropriate to stems terminating in -n, as the adjective alte in German der alte Mann ("the old man").

15. (of wheat or flour) having a low gluten content or having a poor quality of gluten.

16. Photog. thin; not dense.

17. Com. characterized by a decline in prices: The market was weak in the morning but rallied in the afternoon.

[1250-1300; ME weik < ON veikr; c. OE wac, D week, G weich; akin to OE wican to yield, give way, ON vikja to move, turn, draw back, G weichen to yield]

Syn. 1. breakable, delicate. 2. senile, sickly, unwell, invalid. WEAK, DECREPIT, FEEBLE, WEAKLY imply a lack of strength or of good health. WEAK means not physically strong, because of extreme youth, old age, illness, etc.: weak after an attack of fever. DECREPIT means old and broken in health to a marked degree: decrepit and barely able to walk. FEEBLE denotes much the same as WEAK, but connotes being pitiable or inferior: feeble and almost senile.

WEAKLY suggests a long-standing sickly condition, a state of chronic bad health: A weakly child may become a strong adult. 4. ineffective. 6. unsound, ineffective, inadequate, illogical, inconclusive, unsustained, unsatisfactory, lame, vague. 7. unintelligent, simple, foolish, stupid, senseless, silly. 8. vacillating, wavering, unstable, irresolute, fluctuating, undecided, weak-kneed. 9. slender, slim, inconsiderable, flimsy, poor, trifling, trivial. 11. wanting, short, lacking.

Ant. 1. strong.

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Synonyms:

Feeble, languid, weekly / Low, faint, small, feeble, piping, womanish / Thin, watery, diluted, waterish, insipid, tasteless / Sleazy, flimsy, slight, poor, trifling, feeble, frivolous / Poor, inconclusive, unconvincing, unsatisfactory, lame, illogical, vague / Accessible, assailable, vulnerable / Unsustained, unsupported / Ineffective, inefficient, inefficacious / Unsound, unsafe, untrustworthy, frail, unsubstantial / Infirm, unstable, unsteady, undecided, wavering, unsettled / Ineffectual / Sickly, debilitated, unhealthy, unsound, infirm, tender, valetudinary, valetudinarian, invalid, frail, delicate, fragile / Powerless / Delicate, frail, fragile / Small, slight, slender, inconsiderable / Defenceless, unguarded, exposed, unprotected / Soft, pliant / Pliable, pusillanimous, easily influenced, without any backbone, irresolute / Shallow, simple, silly, senseless, witless, stupid, foolish, childish, imbecile / Unwise, injudicious / Indiscreet, erring, peccable, foolish, imprudent / Feeble

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Weak — (w[=e]k), a. [Compar. {Weaker} (w[=e]k [ e]r); superl. {Weakest}.] [OE. weik, Icel. veikr; akin to Sw. vek, Dan. veg soft, flexible, pliant, AS. w[=a]c weak, soft, pliant, D. week, G. weich, OHG. weih; all from the verb seen in Icel. v[=i]kja to… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
weak — W2S3 [wi:k] adj ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 1¦(physical)¦ 2¦(likely to break)¦ 3¦(character)¦ 4¦(without power)¦ 5¦(without interest)¦ 6¦(without energy)¦ 7¦(not good at doing something)¦ 8¦(money)¦ 9¦(argument/idea)¦ 10¦(drink)¦ … Dictionary of contemporary English
weak — [ wik ] adjective *** ▸ 1 lacking energy ▸ 2 lacking power ▸ 3 easily persuaded ▸ 4 bad in quality ▸ 5 likely to break/fail ▸ 6 with a lot of water ▸ 7 lacking strength ▸ 8 in linguistics 1. ) part of your body that is weak is not as strong or… … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
weak — [wiːk] adjective FINANCE 1. if markets, investments, currencies etc are weak, their prices are falling: • The company reported a loss of C$16 million, mostly because of weak metals prices. • The weak dollar has ma … Financial and business terms
weak — [wēk] adj. [ME waik < ON veikr, akin to OE wac, feeble (which the ON word replaced) < IE * weig , * weik (< base * wei , to bend) > WEEK, WICKER, L vicis, change] 1. a) lacking in strength of body or muscle; not physically strong b)… … English World dictionary
weak — weak·en; weak·en·er; weak; weak·ish; weak·li·ness; weak·ness; elec·tro·weak; weak·ling; weak·ly; weak·head·ed·ly; weak·head·ed·ness; weak·heart·ed·ly; weak·heart·ed·ness; weak·ish·ly; weak·ish·ness; weak·kneed·ly; weak·kneed·ness; … English syllables
weak — weak, feeble, frail, fragile, infirm, decrepit can mean not strong enough to bear, resist, or endure strain or pressure or to withstand difficulty, effort, or use. Weak is by far the widest in its range of application, being not only… … New Dictionary of Synonyms
Weak — is a generic adjective pertaining to a general state of feebleness, a lack of strength, durability, or vigor. Contents 1 Music 2 Other 3 See also … Wikipedia
weak — [adj1] not strong anemic, debilitated, decrepit, delicate, effete, enervated, exhausted, faint, feeble, flaccid, flimsy, forceless, fragile, frail, hesitant, impuissant, infirm, insubstantial, irresolute, lackadaisical*, languid, languorous, limp … New thesaurus
weak — c.1300, from O.N. veikr weak, cognate with O.E. wac weak, pliant, soft, from P.Gmc. *waikwaz yield, *wikanan bend (Cf. O.S. wek, Swed. vek, M.Du. weec, Du. week weak, soft, tender, O.H.G. weih … Etymology dictionary
weak´en|er — weak|en «WEE kuhn», transitive verb. to make weak or weaker: »You can weaken tea by adding water. –v.i. 1. to grow or become weak or weaker. 2. to take a less firm attitude; give way: »We are almost to the top of the mountain; let s not weaken… … Useful english dictionary

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