Word.ws English Dictionary

weak in the knees

weak in the knees is the alternative form of weak-kneed.

Meaning of weak-kneed

Adjective

weak-kneed (comparative more weak-kneed, superlative most weak-kneed)

  1. (figuratively) Lacking will power or strength of character; timid.
    • It is incontrovertible that the children grow up into rotten adults, without virility or stamina, a weak-kneed, narrow-chested, listless breed, that crumples up and goes down in the brute struggle for life.1903, Jack London, chapter 5, in The People of the Abyss
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see weak, kneed.

Forms of weak in the knees

comparativeweaker in the knees
superlativeweakest in the knees

Questions about weak in the knees

What is weak in the knees the alternative form of?
Weak in the knees is the alternative form of weak-kneed.

Words near weak in the knees in the dictionary

  1. weak atheists
  2. weak copyleft
  3. weak declension
  4. weak declensions
  5. weak force
  6. weak in the knees
  7. weak interaction
  8. weak interactions
  9. weak isospin
  10. weak isospins
  11. weak link

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: weak in the knees (page history and authors); weak-kneed (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “weak in the knees.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/weak_in_the_knees. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.