weak

Adjective

weak (comparative weaker, superlative weakest)

1. Lacking in force (usually strength) or ability.
   • The child was too weak to move the boulder.
   • They easily guessed his weak computer password.

   Synonyms:

   feeble, frail, powerless, vincible, assailable, vulnerable

2. Unable to sustain a great weight, pressure, or strain.
   • a weak timber; a weak rope
3. Limp, soft.
4. Unable to withstand temptation, urgency, persuasion, etc.; easily impressed, moved, or overcome; accessible; vulnerable.
   • weak resolutions; weak virtue
   • Guard thy heart / On this weak side, where most our nature fails.1703, Nicholas Rowe, The Fair Penitent, act I, scene I
5. (often) Having a strong, irrepressible emotional love for someone or (less often) something; sentimentally affected by such love.
   • 'Cause sugar pie, honey bunch
     You know that I'm weak for you
     Can't help myself
     I love you and nobody else2065 April 23, “I Can't Help Myself”, in Four Tops Second Album, performed by The Four Tops
   • It’s really good to hear your voice
     Sayin' my name, it sounds so sweet
     Comin' from the lips of an angel
     Hearin' those words, it makes me weak2006 April 3, “Lips Of An Angel”, in Extreme Behavior, performed by Hinder
6. Dilute, lacking in taste or potency.
   • That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
   • We were served stale bread and weak tea.

   Synonyms:

   dilute, watery

7. (Germanic languages) Regular in inflection, lacking vowel changes and having a past tense marked by /-d-/, /-t-/, or /-ð-/.
   • The verb to walk is weak because it has a past tense of walked and all forms are inflected by adding the typical suffix (ie is regular) to the stem walk- (ie has no vowel changes).
   • The verb to run is strong, not weak, because the past tense is ran.

   Antonyms:

   strong

8. (Germanic languages) Showing less distinct grammatical endings.

   Antonyms:

   strong

9. (Germanic languages) Definite in meaning, often used with a definite article or similar word.

   Antonyms:

   strong

10. (Semitic languages) Related to, containing, or being a consonant which is prone to disappearing in some inflections, in most applicable languages including (but not limited to) w and y.
    • In some Semitic languages such as Akkadian, some or all gutturals are weak and often disappear, but in others such as Arabic and Ugaritic, they are strong and never disappear.
    • The reflexes of the Proto-Semitic verb *mawut- (“to die”) are often weak due to the presence of w, for example: Arabic مَاتَ (māta), Hebrew מֵת (mēṯ), and Ugaritic 𐎎𐎚 (mt /⁠māta⁠/).

    Antonyms:

    strong

11. (Uralic languages) Related to, being, or containing the lenis consonant gradation, which resulted from historically closed syllables.
    • The Finnish verb kääntää (“to translate”) inflects to the singular imperative as käännä, showing the weak gradation nt > nn because it historically ended in a consonant which closed the syllable.

    Antonyms:

    strong

12. (Indo-European-studies, especially) Of a form in which the accent tends to shift forwards (to the right, in transcription) or did so ancestrally in Proto-Indo-European, relative to the strong stem (which has the leftmost accent allowed).
    • Paradigmatic slots in which the accent and correlating e-grade are positioned further to the left of the word are traditionally termed strong, those with accent and e-grade further to the right, are called weak. In all nouns and verbs which show these alternations, the strong and the weak forms are...2007, James Clackson, Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, section 3.5, page 79
    • The PIE zero grade was most often found in weak stems, such as in *mn̥téys (“of thought, from thinking”, genitive/ablative singular of *méntis) and *mn̥yóh₂er (“I am thinking”). Over time it spread to strong stems, i.e. *mń̥tis, by processes of analogy and leveling. The full grade was persistent in...

    Antonyms:

    strong

    1. (Indo-European-studies, especially) In a grammatical case other than nominative, accusative, vocative or sometimes locative singular.
    2. (Indo-European-studies, especially) In a conjugation other than singular active forms (regardless of person, tense etc.).
       • All middle forms of Indo-European verbs are traditionally weak. Middle-only verbs can still be compared to hypothetical strong stems, such as weak *ǵn̥h₁-yé- (e.g. *ǵn̥h₁yéto, “(he/she/it) was born”) versus strong *ǵénh₁-ye-.