weak

[ week ]

/ wik /

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See synonyms for: weak / weaker / weakest on Thesaurus.com

adjective, weak·er, weak·est.

not strong; liable to yield, break, or collapse under pressure or strain; fragile; frail: a weak fortress; a weak spot in armor.

lacking in bodily strength or healthy vigor, as from age or sickness; feeble; infirm: a weak old man; weak eyes.

not having much political strength, governing power, or authority: a weak nation; a weak ruler.

lacking in force, potency, or efficacy; impotent, ineffectual, or inadequate: weak sunlight; a weak wind.

lacking in rhetorical or creative force or effectiveness: a weak reply to the charges; one of the author's weakest novels.

lacking in logical or legal force or soundness: a weak argument.

deficient in mental power, intelligence, or judgment: a weak mind.

not having much moral strength or firmness, resolution, or force of character: to prove weak under temptation; weak compliance.

deficient in amount, volume, loudness, intensity, etc.; faint; slight: a weak current of electricity; a weak pulse.

deficient, lacking, or poor in something specified: a hand weak in trumps; I'm weak in spelling.

deficient in the essential or usual properties or ingredients: weak tea.

unstressed, as a syllable, vowel, or word.

(of Germanic verbs) inflected with suffixes, without inherited change of the root vowel, as English work, worked, or having a preterit ending in a dental, as English bring, brought.

(of Germanic nouns and adjectives) inflected with endings originally appropriate to stems terminating in -n, as the adjective alte in German der alte Mann (“the old man”).

(of wheat or flour) having a low gluten content or having a poor quality of gluten.

Photography. thin; not dense.

Commerce. characterized by a decline in prices: The market was weak in the morning but rallied in the afternoon.

OTHER WORDS FOR weak

1 breakable, delicate.

2 senile, sickly, unwell, invalid.

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.

See synonyms for weak on Thesaurus.com

OPPOSITES FOR weak

1 strong.

See antonyms for weak on Thesaurus.com

QUIZ

CAN YOU ANSWER THESE COMMON GRAMMAR DEBATES?

There are grammar debates that never die; and the ones highlighted in the questions in this quiz are sure to rile everyone up once again. Do you know how to answer the questions that cause some of the greatest grammar debates?

Question 1 of 7

Which sentence is correct?

His boss, whom he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

His boss, who he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of weak

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English weik, from 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”

synonym study for weak

2. 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.

OTHER WORDS FROM weak

o·ver·weak, adjectiveo·ver·weak·ly, adverbo·ver·weak·ness, noun

Words nearby weak

WDA, WDC, WDM, we, WEA, weak, weak accumulation point, weak as a kitten, weaken, weak ending, weaker sex

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use weak in a sentence

He is too weak, too scared of the hatred he has stirred to put an end to it.
Trump to visit Kenosha on Tuesday, despite protests from local leaders|kdunn6|September 1, 2020|Fortune
A meta-analysis of 426 studies found only weak effects of anti-bias training on both implicit and explicit biases.
How to be a fair-pay CEO|matthewheimer|August 25, 2020|Fortune
Lowe’s has long been derided as a weaker version of its bigger rival Home Depot.
How Lowe’s CEO is overhauling its e-commerce to capitalize on the home projects boom|Phil Wahba|August 19, 2020|Fortune
The idea became more plausible in the 1970s, after physicists discovered that massive particles carry the weak and strong forces.
The Physicist Who Slayed Gravity’s Ghosts|Thomas Lewton|August 18, 2020|Quanta Magazine

Another victim of the weak advertising market, ViacomCBS reported a 27% decline in ad revenue in its second quarter.
How the world’s biggest media companies fared through the ongoing crisis in Q2|Lara O'Reilly|August 12, 2020|Digiday
They even released a (pretty damn weak) hip-hop song on SoundCloud recounting their antics.
The Attack on the Hidden Internet|Marc Rogers|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Instead of being strong and resilient, bones become weak and brittle.
You’re Never ‘Cured’ of an Eating Disorder|Carrie Arnold|December 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
A lot of people think females are too weak for the job, but I know that all the men she worked with saw her as one of the guys.
The Mystery Death Of A Female Firefighter|Christopher Moraff|December 13, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Alas, his soul is willing, but his flesh is weak and he whiffs.
After Torture Report, Our Moral Authority As a Nation Is Gone|Nick Gillespie|December 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The paperwork was spotless: he had died in transit, the conjunction of a weak heart and long trip.
A Million Ways to Die in Prison|Daniel Genis|December 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
First Impressions are usually vivid but the power to revive them is weak—a poor memory.
Assimilative Memory|Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)
First Impressions are usually weak but the power to revive them is strong—still a poor memory.
Assimilative Memory|Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)
But the nasty part of the whole thing was, that Haggard had won eleven thousand pounds from a weak-headed boy.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills
He shut his fist and hit Butterface a weak but well intended right-hander on the nose.
The Giant of the North|R.M. Ballantyne
But in her first rage Mrs. Charmington had been weak enough to let out that the prince had called young Mrs. Haggard "lovely."
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills

British Dictionary definitions for weak

weak

/ (wiːk) /

adjective

lacking in physical or mental strength or force; frail or feeble

liable to yield, break, or give waya weak link in a chain

lacking in resolution or firmness of character

lacking strength, power, or intensitya weak voice

lacking strength in a particular parta team weak in defence

not functioning as well as normalweak eyes
easily upseta weak stomach

lacking in conviction, persuasiveness, etca weak argument

lacking in political or strategic strengtha weak state

lacking the usual, full, or desirable strength of flavourweak tea

grammar

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
belonging to any part-of-speech class, in any of various languages, whose inflections follow the more regular of two possible patternsCompare strong (def. 13)

(of a syllable) not accented or stressed

(of a fuel-air mixture) containing a relatively low proportion of fuelCompare rich (def. 13)

photog having low density or contrast; thin

(of an industry, market, currency, securities, etc) falling in price or characterized by falling prices

Derived forms of weak

weakish, adjectiveweakishly, adverbweakishness, noun

Word Origin for weak

Old English wāc soft, miserable; related to Old Saxon wēk, Old High German weih, Old Norse veikr

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with weak

weak

In addition to the idioms beginning with weak

weak as a kitten
weak link
weak moment, in a

also see:

spirit is willing but the flesh is weak

weak

OTHER WORDS FOR weak

OPPOSITES FOR weak

Origin of weak

synonym study for weak

OTHER WORDS FROM weak

Words nearby weak

Words related to weak

How to use weak in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for weak

Derived forms of weak

Word Origin for weak

Other Idioms and Phrases with weak