weakly
Americanadjective
adverb
adjective
adverb
Synonym Usage
See weak.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of weakly
First recorded in 1350–1400, weakly is from the Middle English word weekely. See weak, -ly
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There's scant to no clinical evidence supporting such promises, and doctors have voiced concern that endorsing weakly understood if trendy substances could direct patients away from treatments backed by evidence.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
“If dads had higher prenatal cortisol and partners were more weakly linked, toddlers did worse on the executive functioning task, perhaps because the dads were less attuned to their partners and less primed to parent.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
The article portrays California’s 2026 governor’s race as unusually unsettled and “confounding,” with many voters either undecided or only weakly committed to a choice, even as the primary enters its final weeks.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2026
My bargaining with the moral universe is that I still listen to “Off the Wall,” weakly reasoning that it came out before Jackson launched his Peter Pan act.
From Salon ● May 14, 2026
“It’s just a joke,” Dad told his mother, weakly.
From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
He was smaller and weaklier than either of you, and Harald could have mastered six like him.
From Problematic Characters A Novel by Friedrich Spielhagen
The South American mules were of a weaklier stamp, their poor condition being the result of importation.
From South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 3 (of 6) From the Battle of Colenso, 15th Dec. 1899, to Lord Roberts's Advance into the Free State, 12th Feb. 1900 by Louis Creswicke
You say, we are likely to grow weaklier, unhealthier.
From Health and Education by Charles Kingsley
C. japonica, which can only be obtained from seed, or by cuttings; and the varieties root readily as cuttings, though one or two of the weaklier ones do better if grafted on C. japonica.
From Trees and Shrubs for English Gardens by Ernest Thomas Cook
You say, we are likely to grow weaklier, unhealthier.
From Sanitary and Social Lectures, etc by Charles Kingsley
The feeblest articles in the weakliest magazines, the very mildest and most conventional novels appear to be the only studies of the majority.
From How to Fail in Literature; a lecture by Andrew Lang
But the dexterous young Wife, gladdest; busiest and weakliest of hopeful creatures, contrived to manage everything, like a Female Fieldmarshal, as she was.
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 09 by Thomas Carlyle
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
