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

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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

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

How to use weak in a sentence

Her father grew weaker and finally passed away early one morning in 2008.
How ‘Titanic ’Helped This Brave Young Woman Escape North Korea’s Totalitarian State|Lizzie Crocker|October 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
I begged the doctors to save my children [as] I watched them grow weaker and weaker every day.
‘Her Survival Was a Miracle’: The 6-Year-Old Who Beat Ebola|Wade C.L. Williams|October 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Palmer takes some "bearing with," and, like us all, has his weaker side.
Will the Real Jim Palmer Please Stand Up|Tom Boswell|September 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
I had seen people die in various ways and those deaths made my knees weak but this journalist death made my knees weaker.
Thank Goodness We’ve Got A Plan! Let the War Begin!|Michael Carson|September 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST

In Iraq and Syria, facing weaker enemies in collapsed states, ISIS has dominated in battle.
Don't Start a War Over a Hostage|Jacob Siegel|August 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Coulter was still holding fast, but his strength was rapidly growing weaker.
The Mystery at Putnam Hall|Arthur M. Winfield
More, for an infant does grow up, and he will only become weaker and weaker mentally and physically.
Tessa Wadsworth's Discipline|Jennie M. Drinkwater
It is so much weaker than formerly that I have been obliged to get a pair of eyeglasses, which I am told are very becoming to me.
The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky|Modeste Tchaikovsky
She knew that Mrs. Royall was sad and timid and weak; she knew that lawyer Royall was harsh and violent, and still weaker.
Summer|Edith Wharton
If irritating to the skin, these lotions can be made weaker, or less frequently applied than might otherwise be necessary.
The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness|Florence Hartley

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 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