weak
/wi(ː)k/ adjective
Forms weaker weakest weake
- adjective Lacking in force (usually strength) or ability. “The child was too weak to move the boulder.”
- adjective Unable to sustain a great weight, pressure, or strain. “a weak timber; a weak rope”
- adjective Limp, soft.
- adjective Unable to withstand temptation, urgency, persuasion, etc.; easily impressed, moved, or overcome; accessible; vulnerable. “weak resolutions; weak virtue”
- adjective (often with for) Having a strong, irrepressible emotional love for someone or (less often) something; sentimentally affected by such love.
- adjective Dilute, lacking in taste or potency. “We were served stale bread and weak tea.”
- adjective (Germanic languages, of verbs) Regular in inflection, lacking vowel changes and having a past tense marked by /-d-/, /-t-/, or /-ð-/. “The verb to walk is weak because it has a past tense of walked and all forms are inflected by adding the typical suffix (ie is regular) to the stem walk- (ie has no vowel changes).”
- adjective (Germanic languages, of nouns) Showing less distinct grammatical endings.
Synonyms
feeble frail powerless vincible assailable vulnerable dilute watery anemic breakable broken-down damaged debilitated decrepit delicate dickless effete enervated enfeebled exhausted washy unaccented light fallible imperfect debile infirm rickety sapless weakly
Antonyms
strong healthy powerful robust invincible potent able-bodied athletic beefy brawny capable competent
Etymology
From Middle English waik, wayk, wayke, weik, weyk, borrowed from Old Norse veikr (“weak”), from Proto-Germanic *waikwaz (“weak, yielded, pliant, bendsome”), from *wīkwaną (“to cease, fold, yield; to retreat”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyg- (“to bend, turn, wind”), from *weh₁y- (“to plait, twist, weave, wind; to cover, enclose, wrap”).
Cognate with Old English wāc (“bendsome, weak”), Saterland Frisian wook (“soft, gentle, tender”), West Frisian weak (“soft”), Dutch week (“soft, weak”), German weich (“soft, weak”), Luxembourgish weech (“weak”), Yiddish ווייך (veykh, “soft”), Danish veg (“weak”), Faroese and Icelandic veikur (“weak”), Norwegian Bokmål veik, vek (“weak; pliant”), Norwegian Nynorsk veik (“weak”), Swedish vek (“weak, pliant”), Estonian vaik, vaikne (“quiet”), Finnish vaieta (“to fall silent; to be silent; to keep silent; to suppress by not discussing”), Ingrian vaiketa (“quiet down”); also Cornish gwigh (“winkles”), Irish faocha, faochóg (“periwinkle”), Latin vicis (“change; time; season; succession; lot; place, room, stead”), vieo (“to bend”), Ancient Greek οἴγω (oígō, “to open”), Albanian vig (“bier, litter, stretcher”), Lithuanian vyti (“to twist, wind”), Belarusian віць (vicʹ, “to twist, weave”), Bulgarian ви́я (víja, “to bend, twist; to roam; to swirl”), Czech vít (“to weave, wind; to wrap”), Polish and Upper Sorbian wić (“to plait, weave; to wriggle, writhe”), Russian вить (vitʹ, “to wind; to twist, weave”), Serbo-Croatian ви̏ти, vȉti (“to twist”), Slovene viti (“to twist”), Ukrainian ви́ти (výty, “to twist, wind; to plait; to build a nest; to curl”), Northern Kurdish avêtin, avitin, avîtin, havêtin, havîtin (“to cast, throw”), Persian آویختن (âvixtan, “to hang, suspend”), بیختن (bēxtan / bixtan, “to sift”), Sanskrit वेग (vega, “speed, impetus; stream; agitation; impetuosity; strength; haste; the flight of an arrow; love; delight; expulsion; semen; attack; constipation”).
Related to Old English wīcan (“to yield”). Related to week and wick.
The grammar sense is a calque of German schwach.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Wanting physical strength. Specifically: -- (a) Deficient in strength of body; feeble; infirm; sickly; debilitated; enfeebled; exhausted.
- adjective 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.
- verb To make or become weak; to weaken. [R.]
Etymology [OE. weik, Icel. veikr; akin to Sw. vek, Dan. veg soft, flexible, pliant, AS. wac weak, soft, pliant, D. week, G. weich, OHG. weih; all from the verb seen in Icel. vikja to turn, veer, recede, AS. wican to yield, give way, G. weichen, OHG. wihhan, akin to Skr. vij, and probably to E. week, L. vicis a change, turn, Gr. Week, Wink, v. i. Vicissitude.]
Etymology [Cf. AS. w. wacian. See Weak, a.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “weak”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details