weak

adj

Etymology: From Middle English weyk, wayk, weik, waik, borrowed from Old Norse veikr (“weak”), from Proto-Germanic *waikwaz (“weak, yielded, pliant, bendsome”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Old English wāc (“weak, bendsome”), Saterland Frisian wook (“soft, gentle, tender”), West Frisian weak (“soft”), Dutch week (“soft, weak”), German weich (“weak, soft”), Norwegian veik (“weak”), Swedish vek (“weak, pliant”), Icelandic veikur (“bendsome, weak”). Related to Old English wīcan (“to yield”). Related to week and wick. The grammar sense is a calque of German schwach.

1. Lacking in force (usually strength) or ability.

   “The child was too weak to move the boulder.”

   “They easily guessed his weak computer password.”

2. Unable to sustain a great weight, pressure, or strain.

   “a weak timber; a weak rope”

3. Limp, soft.
4. Unable to withstand temptation, urgency, persuasion, etc.; easily impressed, moved, or overcome; accessible; vulnerable.

   “weak resolutions; weak virtue”

   “Guard thy heart / On this weak side, where most our nature fails.”

5. Having a strong, irrepressible emotional love for someone or (less often) something; sentimentally affected by such love.

   “'Cause sugar pie, honey bunch You know that I'm weak for you Can't help myself I love you and nobody else”

   “It’s really good to hear your voice Sayin' my name, it sounds so sweet Comin' from the lips of an angel Hearin' those words, it makes me weak”

6. Dilute, lacking in taste or potency.

   “That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.”

   “We were served stale bread and weak tea.”

7. Displaying a particular kind of inflection, including:

   “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).”

   “The verb to run is strong, not weak, because the past tense is ran.”

8. Displaying a particular kind of inflection, including:
9. Displaying a particular kind of inflection, including:
10. Displaying a particular kind of inflection, including:

    “In some Semitic languages such as Akkadian, some or all gutturals are weak and often disappear, but in others such as Arabic and Ugaritic, they are strong and never disappear.”

    “The reflexes of the Proto-Semitic verb *mawut- (“to die”) are often weak due to the presence of w, for example: Arabic مَاتَ (māta), Hebrew מֵת (mēṯ), and Ugaritic 𐎎𐎚 (mt /⁠māta⁠/).”

11. Displaying a particular kind of inflection, including:

    “The Finnish verb kääntää (“to translate”) inflects to the singular imperative as käännä, showing the weak gradation nt > nn because it historically ended in a consonant which closed the syllable.”

12. Of a form in which the accent tends to shift forwards (to the right, in transcription) or did so ancestrally in Proto-Indo-European, relative to the strong stem (which has the leftmost accent allowed).

    “Paradigmatic slots in which the accent and correlating e-grade are positioned further to the left of the word are traditionally termed strong, those with accent and e-grade further to the right, are called weak. In all nouns and verbs which show these alternations, the strong and the weak forms are predictable from the morphological category […].”

    “The PIE zero grade was most often found in weak stems, such as in *mn̥téys (“of thought, from thinking”, genitive/ablative singular of *méntis) and *mn̥yóh₂er (“I am thinking”). Over time it spread to strong stems, i.e. *mń̥tis, by processes of analogy and leveling. The full grade was persistent in the first syllable of reduplicated stative verbs: strong *tetórph₂e (“I am satisfied”), weak *tetr̥pmé (“we all are satisfied”), though for some verbs such as *pí-ph₃-e- (“to drink”) there was an unusual i-grade which may have lacked any distinct weak counterpart.”

13. Of a form in which the accent tends to shift forwards (to the right, in transcription) or did so ancestrally in Proto-Indo-European, relative to the strong stem (which has the leftmost accent allowed).
14. Of a form in which the accent tends to shift forwards (to the right, in transcription) or did so ancestrally in Proto-Indo-European, relative to the strong stem (which has the leftmost accent allowed).

    “All middle forms of Indo-European verbs are traditionally weak. Middle-only verbs can still be compared to hypothetical strong stems, such as weak *ǵn̥h₁-yé- (e.g. *ǵn̥h₁yéto, “(he/she/it) was born”) versus strong *ǵénh₁-ye-.”

15. Lenis, pronounced with less force or less markedness.
16. That does not ionize completely into anions and cations in a solution.

    “a weak acid”

    “a weak base”

17. One of the four fundamental forces associated with nuclear decay.
18. Bad or uncool.

    “This place is weak.”

19. Having a narrow range of logical consequences; narrowly applicable. (Often contrasted with a strong statement which implies it.)
20. Resulting from, or indicating, lack of judgment, discernment, or firmness; unwise; hence, foolish.

    “If evil thence ensue, / She first his weak indulgence will accuse.”

21. Not having power to convince; not supported by force of reason or truth; unsustained.

    “The prosecution advanced a weak case.”

    “convinced of his weak arguing”

22. Lacking in vigour or expression.

    “a weak sentence; a weak style”

    “It could turn out that An Unexpected Journey is the weakest of this trilogy, the necessary preamble before less-stultifying action and more engaging character development ensue. But, to paraphrase the sweet and stout-hearted Bilbo himself, this adventure won’t just make you late for dinner. It might make you miss breakfast and lunch, too. Only the most dedicated Middle-earthers will find that the hunger pangs are worth it.”

23. Not prevalent or effective, or not felt to be prevalent; not potent; feeble.

    “Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers.”

24. Tending towards lower prices.

    “a weak market; wheat is weak at present”

25. Lacking contrast.

    “a weak negative”