weak

[ week ]

adjective

, weak·er, weak·est.

1. not strong; liable to yield, break, or collapse under pressure or strain; fragile; frail:

   a weak fortress; a weak spot in armor.

   Synonyms: breakable, delicate

   Antonyms: strong

2. lacking in bodily strength or healthy vigor, as from age or sickness; feeble; infirm:

   a weak old man; weak eyes.

   Synonyms: invalid, unwell, sickly, senile

3. not having much political strength, governing power, or authority:

   a weak nation; a weak ruler.

4. lacking in force, potency, or efficacy; impotent, ineffectual, or inadequate:

   weak sunlight; a weak wind.

   Synonyms: ineffective

5. lacking in rhetorical or creative force or effectiveness:

   a weak reply to the charges; one of the author's weakest novels.

6. lacking in logical or legal force or soundness:

   a weak argument.

   Synonyms: vague, lame, unsatisfactory, inconclusive, illogical, inadequate, ineffective, unsound

7. deficient in mental power, intelligence, or judgment:

   a weak mind.

   Synonyms: silly, senseless, stupid, foolish, simple, unintelligent

8. not having much moral strength or firmness, resolution, or force of character:

   to prove weak under temptation; weak compliance.

   Synonyms: weak-kneed, undecided, irresolute, unstable, vacillating

9. deficient in amount, volume, loudness, intensity, etc.; faint; slight:

   a weak current of electricity; a weak pulse.

   Synonyms: trivial, trifling, poor, flimsy, inconsiderable, slim, slender

10. deficient, lacking, or poor in something specified:

    a hand weak in trumps; I'm weak in spelling.

11. deficient in the essential or usual properties or ingredients:

    weak tea.

    Synonyms: lacking, short, wanting

12. unstressed, as a syllable, vowel, or word.
13. (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.
14. (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”).
15. (of wheat or flour) having a low gluten content or having a poor quality of gluten.
16. Photography. thin; not dense.
17. Commerce. characterized by a decline in prices:

    The market was weak in the morning but rallied in the afternoon.

weak

/ wiːk /

adjective

1. lacking in physical or mental strength or force; frail or feeble
2. liable to yield, break, or give way

   a weak link in a chain

3. lacking in resolution or firmness of character
4. lacking strength, power, or intensity

   a weak voice

5. lacking strength in a particular part

   a team weak in defence

6. 1. not functioning as well as normal

      weak eyes

   2. easily upset

      a weak stomach

7. lacking in conviction, persuasiveness, etc

   a weak argument

8. lacking in political or strategic strength

   a weak state

9. lacking the usual, full, or desirable strength of flavour

   weak tea

10. grammar
    1. 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
    2. belonging to any part-of-speech class, in any of various languages, whose inflections follow the more regular of two possible patterns Compare strong
11. (of a syllable) not accented or stressed
12. See rich
    (of a fuel-air mixture) containing a relatively low proportion of fuel Compare rich
13. photog having low density or contrast; thin
14. (of an industry, market, currency, securities, etc) falling in price or characterized by falling prices

Derived Forms

• ˈweakishness, noun
• ˈweakishly, adverb
• ˈweakish, adjective

Other Words From

• over·weak adjective
• over·weakly adverb
• over·weakness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of weak¹

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”

Word History and Origins

Origin of weak¹

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

Idioms and Phrases

• spirit is willing but the flesh is weak

Synonym Study

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.

Example Sentences

He is too weak, too scared of the hatred he has stirred to put an end to it.

From Fortune

A meta-analysis of 426 studies found only weak effects of anti-bias training on both implicit and explicit biases.

From Fortune

Lowe’s has long been derided as a weaker version of its bigger rival Home Depot.

From Fortune

The idea became more plausible in the 1970s, after physicists discovered that massive particles carry the weak and strong forces.

From Quanta Magazine

Another victim of the weak advertising market, ViacomCBS reported a 27% decline in ad revenue in its second quarter.

From Digiday

They even released a (pretty damn weak) hip-hop song on SoundCloud recounting their antics.

From The Daily Beast

Instead of being strong and resilient, bones become weak and brittle.

From The 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.

From The Daily Beast

Alas, his soul is willing, but his flesh is weak and he whiffs.

From The Daily Beast

The paperwork was spotless: he had died in transit, the conjunction of a weak heart and long trip.

From The Daily Beast

First Impressions are usually vivid but the power to revive them is weak—a poor memory.

From Project Gutenberg

First Impressions are usually weak but the power to revive them is strong—still a poor memory.

From Project Gutenberg

But the nasty part of the whole thing was, that Haggard had won eleven thousand pounds from a weak-headed boy.

From Project Gutenberg

He shut his fist and hit Butterface a weak but well intended right-hander on the nose.

From Project Gutenberg

But in her first rage Mrs. Charmington had been weak enough to let out that the prince had called young Mrs. Haggard "lovely."

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• immature
• inadequate
• incomplete
• ineffective
• ineffectual
• inept
• lacking
• limited
• poor
• shaky
• slim
• small
• thin