adjective, weak·er, weak·est.
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.
13.
14.
15.
(of wheat or flour) having a low gluten content or having a poor quality of gluten.
16.
Photography. thin; not dense.
17.
Commerce. characterized by a decline in prices: The market was weak in the morning but rallied in the afternoon.
Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English weik < Old Norse veikr; cognate with Old English wāc, Dutch week, German weich; akin to Old English wīcan to yield, give way, Old Norse vīkja to move, turn, draw back, German weichen to yield
1250–1300; Middle English weik < Old Norse veikr; cognate with Old English wāc, Dutch week, German weich; akin to Old English wīcan to yield, give way, Old Norse vīkja to move, turn, draw back, German weichen to yield
Related forms
o·ver·weak, adjective
o·ver·weak·ly, adverb
o·ver·weak·ness, noun
Synonyms
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.
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.
Antonyms
1. strong.
1. strong.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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|
Link To weak
00:10
Weak
is always a great word to know.
So is out-of-sync. Does it mean:
| an additional crew used at a second location for filming crowd scenes and other shots that do not require the principal actors |
| in the editing or projection of film, any situation in which the sound does not correspond to the lip movements of an actor |
Collins
World English Dictionary
weak (wiːk) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —adj | |
| 1. | lacking in physical or mental strength or force; frail or feeble |
| 2. | liable to yield, break, or give way: a weak link in a chain |
| 3. | lacking in resolution or firmness of character |
| 4. | lacking strength, power, or intensity: a weak voice |
| 5. | lacking strength in a particular part: a team weak in defence |
| 6. | a. not functioning as well as normal: weak eyes |
| b. easily upset: a weak stomach | |
| 7. | lacking in conviction, persuasiveness, etc: a weak argument |
| 8. | lacking in political or strategic strength: a weak state |
| 9. | lacking the usual, full, or desirable strength of flavour: weak tea |
| 10. | grammar |
| a. denoting or belonging to a class of verbs, in certain languages including the Germanic languages, whose conjugation relies on inflectional endings rather than internal vowel gradation, as look, looks, looking, looked | |
| b. Compare strong belonging to any part-of-speech class, in any of various languages, whose inflections follow the more regular of two possible patterns | |
| 11. | (of a syllable) not accented or stressed |
| 12. | Compare rich (of a fuel-air mixture) containing a relatively low proportion of fuel |
| 13. | photog having low density or contrast; thin |
| 14. | (of an industry, market, currency, securities, etc) falling in price or characterized by falling prices |
| [Old English wāc soft, miserable; related to Old Saxon wēk, Old High German weih, Old Norse veikr] | |
| 'weakish | |
| —adj | |
| 'weakishly | |
| —adv | |
| 'weakishness | |
| —n | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
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 "yielding, soft," Ger. weich "soft," from PIE base *weik- "to bend, wind" (see
vicarious). Sense of "lacking authority" is first recorded early 15c.; that of "lacking moral strength" late 14c. Weaken (v.) is recorded from 1520s; the earlier verb was simply weak (late 14c.). Weak-kneed "wanting in resolve" is from 1870.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases
weak
In addition to the idioms beginning with weak, also see spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Example sentences
The shape of the magnet created a weak magnetic field surrounded by a strong magnetic field to confine the plasma.
These many weak interactions add up to strong adhesion over the area of the foot.
As precommitment devices go, however, the debt limit is both too weak and too strong.
Copies and scans are fast, but quality is weak.
Idioms & Phrases
Nearby Words
Synonyms
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