| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| weak |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  w k |
| ADJECTIVE: | Inflected forms: weak·er, weak·est
1. Lacking physical strength, energy, or vigor; feeble. 2. Likely to fail under pressure, stress, or strain; lacking resistance: a weak link in a chain. 3. Lacking firmness of character or strength of will. 4. Lacking the proper strength or amount of ingredients: weak coffee. 5. Lacking the ability to function normally or fully: a weak heart. 6. Lacking aptitude or skill: a weak student; weak in math. 7. Lacking or resulting from a lack of intelligence. 8. Lacking persuasiveness; unconvincing: a weak argument. 9. Lacking authority or the power to govern. 10. Lacking potency or intensity: weak sunlight. 11. Linguistics a. Of, relating to, or being those verbs in Germanic languages that form a past tense and past participle by means of a dental suffix, as start, started; have, had; bring, brought. b. Of, relating to, or being the inflection of nouns or adjectives in Germanic languages with a declensional suffix that historically contained an n. 12. Unstressed or unaccented in pronunciation or poetic meter. Used of a word or syllable. 13. Designating a verse ending in which the metrical stress falls on a word or syllable that is unstressed in normal speech, such as a preposition. 14. Tending downward in price: a weak market for oil stocks. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English weike, from Old Norse veikr, pliant. See weik-2 in Appendix I. | | SYNONYMS: | weak, feeble, frail1, fragile, infirm, decrepit, debilitated These adjectives mean lacking or showing a lack of strength. Weak is the most widely applicable: “These poor wretches … were so weak they could hardly sit to their oars” (Daniel Defoe). Feeble suggests pathetic or grievous physical or mental weakness or hopeless inadequacy: a feeble intellect; a feeble effort. Frail implies delicacy and inability to endure or withstand: “an aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small“ (Thomas Hardy.). What is fragile is easily broken, damaged, or destroyed: a fragile, expensive vase; a fragile state of mind after the accident. Infirm implies enfeeblement: “a poor, infirm, weak, and despis'd old man” (Shakespeare). Decrepit describes what is weakened, worn out, or broken down by hard use or the passage of time: a decrepit building slated for demolition. Debilitated suggests a gradual impairment of energy or strength: a debilitated constitution further weakened by overwork.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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