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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



... can cure me!" answered Pericles; but in a weak voice, as though he spoke to himself. He took his old seat in the Hemicyklion. When he had rested a while, he made Socrates a sign to come near, for he did not wish ...
— Historical Miniatures • August Strindberg
... says [*De Incarnat. et Cont. Arianos, written against Apollinarius]: "When Christ says 'Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done,' and again, 'The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak,' He denotes two wills—the human, which through the weakness of the flesh shrank from the passion—and His Divine will eager for the passion." Hence there was ...
— Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas
... weak, overshadowed with sorrow: her loss is great, the loss almost as of the widow's mite; for except her good Mother she had almost no kindred left; and as for friends— they are not rife in this world.—God be thanked withal they are not entirely non-extant! Have I not a Friend, ...
— The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II. • Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson
... so thick that the meal reached the surface, (b) "gruel between two waters" in which the meal, while it did not rise to the surface, did not quite fall to the bottom, and (c) "gruel under water" which was so weak and so badly boiled that he meal easily fell to the bottom. In the case of penitents the first brand of gruel was prescribed for light offences, the second kind for sins of ordinary gravity, and the "gruel under water" for extraordinary crimes (vid. Messrs. Gwynne and Purton on the Rule of Maelruin, ...
— The Life of St. Mochuda of Lismore • Saint Mochuda
... sleepy, he didn't gap ez wide ez he gen'ly does—an' I'm 'feered he's a-gittin' it now." An', sir, with that, she thess gathered up her apron an' mopped her face in it an' give way. An' ez for me, I didn't seem to have no mo' backbone down my spinal colume 'n a feather bolster has, I was that weak. ...
— Sonny, A Christmas Guest • Ruth McEnery Stuart


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