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• weed
  weed

  noun

  a valueless plant growing wild, especially one that grows on cultivated ground to the exclusion or injury of the desired crop.
• Weed
  Weed

  noun

  Thurlow 1797–1882, U.S. journalist and politician.

weed

¹ American  

[weed] / wid /

noun

1. a valueless plant growing wild, especially one that grows on cultivated ground to the exclusion or injury of the desired crop.

2. any undesirable or troublesome plant, especially one that grows profusely where it is not wanted.

   The vacant lot was covered with weeds.

3. Informal. a cigarette or cigar.

4. Slang. a marijuana cigarette.

5. a thin, ungainly person or animal.

6. a wretched or useless animal, especially a horse unfit for racing or breeding purposes.

7. the weed,

   1. Informal. tobacco.

   2. Slang. marijuana.

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verb (used with object)

• weeds,
  present (3rd person singular)
• weeded,
  past participle,  past
• weeding
  present participle

1. to free from weeds or troublesome plants; root out weeds from.

   to weed a garden.

2. to root out or remove (a weed or weeds), as from a garden (often followed byout ).

   to weed out crab grass from a lawn.

3. to remove as being undesirable, inefficient, or superfluous (often followed byout ).

   to weed out inexperienced players.

4. to rid (something) of undesirable or superfluous elements.

verb (used without object)

• weeds,
  present (3rd person singular)
• weeded,
  past participle,  past
• weeding
  present participle

1. to remove weeds or the like.

idioms

1. (deep) in / into the weeds, Also in deep weeds

   1. (of a restaurant worker) overwhelmed and falling behind in serving customers.

      Our waitress was so deep in the weeds that we waited 40 minutes for our burgers.

   2. in trouble; overwhelmed by problems.

      He knows our marriage is in deep weeds.

   3. involved in the details.

      I’m in the weeds of planning my wedding.

weed ² American  

[weed] / wid /

noun

1. weeds, mourning garments.

   widow's weeds.

2. a mourning band of black crepe or cloth, as worn on a man's hat or coat sleeve.

3. Archaic. Often weeds

   1. a garment.

      clad in rustic weeds.

   2. clothing.

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Weed ³ American  

[weed] / wid /

noun

1. Thurlow 1797–1882, U.S. journalist and politician.

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weed ¹ British  

/ wiːd /

noun

1. any plant that grows wild and profusely, esp one that grows among cultivated plants, depriving them of space, food, etc

2. slang

   1. tobacco

   2. marijuana

3. informal a thin or unprepossessing person

4. an inferior horse, esp one showing signs of weakness of constitution

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verb

1. to remove (useless or troublesome plants) from (a garden, etc)

weed ² British  

/ wiːd /

noun

1. rare a black crepe band worn to indicate mourning See also weeds

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• weeder
  noun
• unweeded
  adjective
• weedless
  adjective
• weedlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• weeding
  present
• weeded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• weed
  simple
• weeds
  simple
• have weeded
  perfect
• has weeded
  perfect
• am weeding
  progressive
• are weeding
  progressive
• is weeding
  progressive
• have been weeding
  perfect progressive
• has been weeding
  perfect progressive

Past

• weeded
  simple
• had weeded
  perfect
• was weeding
  progressive
• were weeding
  progressive
• had been weeding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will weed
  simple
• will have weeded
  perfect
• will be weeding
  progressive
• will have been weeding
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of weed¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English wed(e), weid, Old English wēod; cognate with Old Saxon wiod “weed,” Middle Dutch wiet “fern”

Origin of weed²

First recorded before 900; Middle English wed(e), Old English (ge)wǣde, wǣde “garment, clothing”; cognate with Old Saxon wād, gewādi, Old High German wāt, gewāti; cf. wadmal

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

weed Weed weeds weeded weeding

Consider its waiver, then, not just a warning but an attempt to weed out those who may be offended or triggered.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

Weingart also sees maintaining healthy soil, with limited weed growth competing for water, as an important way of helping vines cope with extreme heat and drought.

From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026

He feels you have to "weed through" this to try and "maintain some sort of sense of taste".

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026

This is a sport that named its bowl games for refrigerators, mufflers and weed eaters, and concludes a current one with the bleak, ritual toasting of an anthropomorphic Pop Tart.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

I knew the path by heart, knew all of Perchance cobblestone by cobblestone and weed by weed.

From "Willodeen" by Katherine Applegate

Or as Laurie Metcalf’s Weed makes clear in her hilarious monologue before the Central Park gig.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026

Application software stocks like ServiceNow have been hit especially hard, according to Bernstein analyst Peter Weed.

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 31, 2026

“The only thing Claude is good at, writing software, means very little,” Bernstein’s Peter Weed said in a note to clients.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 23, 2026

Bernstein’s Peter Weed wrote in a note last week that ServiceNow’s stock had unfairly sold off, and that an acquisition would be strategically aligned with ServiceNow’s architecture.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 23, 2025

By the by, the poor Weed still sends updates.

From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

The remaining residents live off vegetables they grow in their gardens, soups of boiled weeds and cans of food they scavenge from bombed-out, abandoned homes around this city.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026

Mall is still a largely abandoned wreck, with broken planter boxes and weeds at street level.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Many residents have turned to cooking garden weeds as they have run out of the vegetables they managed to grow over the summer, she explains.

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

"My mind would be really busy, and I'd suddenly be out here at 7am pulling up weeds," said the 31-year-old.

From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026

There were inch-wide gaps in the splintering wood and a tangle of weeds wrapped around it.

From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney

He weeded out clerical competition and consolidated his rule over a nation of 90 million people as it grew into a regional military and political powerhouse.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026

The long biotech winter cleaned up the sector: Many biotech companies that went public too early during the COVID-inspired biotech frenzy got weeded out by the sector’s subsequent weakness, Renna says.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2025

During the summer, Massa mostly worked alone keeping the newly planted sections of the corridor weeded and watered.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2025

It seems as though all of these people ultimately had second thoughts and decided against taking part, or were weeded out by voir dire.

From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2024

I was embarrassed to reveal that Granny raked leaves and weeded gardens, afraid of being laughed at.

From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane

These Image Makers are shedding expectations and weeding out the noise.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

Fast-spreading pioneer and weeding ferns created extensive fern savannahs.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026

The eight-week programme is being held at the group's field in Sion and involves planting hedges, weeding, watering and studying the concept of sustainability.

From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2026

I put a pot of coffee on and just start weeding or planting.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026

A little pruning, a little watering, a little weeding and straightening up, to bring out the best in me.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

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