weave

/wiːv/

weave verb: to form something by passing lengths or strands of material over and under one another.

Verb (1)

weave (third-person singular simple present weaves, present participle weaving, simple past wove or weaved, past participle woven or weaved or (now colloquial and nonstandard) wove)

(transitive) To form something by passing lengths or strands of material over and under one another.
- This loom weaves yarn into cloth.
- Eugene "Uncle Onio" Punzal has lived on Kauai his whole life. He began weaving coconut fronds when he was a young child after seeing traditional weavers selling their pāpales (a traditional style of crownless hat) and baskets to tourists on the beach.2026, Rebecca Fox, “Weaving with Aloha”, in Handwoven, volume XLVII, number 1, page 80
(transitive) To spin a cocoon or a web.
- Spiders weave beautiful but deadly webs.
(transitive) To unite by close connection or intermixture.
- This weaves itself, perforce, into my business.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- these words, thus woven into song1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza CII
(transitive) To compose creatively and intricately; to fabricate.
- to weave the plot of a story
- According to the simple meaning, these verses warn against forgetting the Torah and against idol worship, but our Sages wove them into an Aggadic passage which deals with physical danger in order to say: Jews must protect their physical health.2024, David Golinkin, “Is Body Piercing Permitted According To Jewish Law”, in Responsa in a Moment, volume 4, page 193

Noun

weave (plural weaves)

A type or way of weaving.
- That rug has a very tight weave.
- Although fabrics of complex weave can most surely be identified as being imports, others, including a vast array of simple fabrics—bedding, table linens, everyday clothing fabrics—could have been made on either side of the Atlantic, since the materials and equipment were the same.1979, Kax Wilson, A History of Textiles, Westview Press, →ISBN, page 239
Human or artificial hair worn to alter one's appearance, either to supplement or to cover the natural hair.
- The physician should evaluate for a history of tight ponytails, buns, chignons, braids, twists, weaves, cornrows, dreadlocks, sisterlocks, and hair wefts in addition to the usage of religious hair coverings.2021, Becky S. Li, Howard I. Maibach, Ethnic Skin and Hair and Other Cultural Considerations, page 154

Verb (2)

weave (third-person singular simple present weaves, present participle weaving, simple past and past participle weaved)

(intransitive) To move by turning and twisting.
- The drunk weaved into another bar.
- The victims’ feeling of incredulity at what they were seeing, swiftly turning to paralysing fear as the van bore down on them, swerving and weaving to hit as many people as possible, can barely be imagined.2017 August 20, “The Observer view on the attacks in Spain”, in The Observer
(transitive) To make (a path or way) by winding in and out or from side to side.
- The ambulance weaved its way through the heavy traffic.
- Weave a circle round him thrice,
  And close your eyes with holy dread:
  For he on honey-dew hath fed,
  And drank the milk of Paradise.1797, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Kubla Khan: Or A Vision in a Dream”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […]...
(intransitive) To move the head back and forth in a stereotyped pattern, typically as a symptom of stress.

weave meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

weave in Hindi

to form something by passing strands of material over and under one another: बुनना bunnā, बुनाई bunāī
to spin a cocoon or a web: बुनना bunnā
a type or way of weaving: बुनाई bunāī

weave in Marathi

to form something by passing strands of material over and under one another: विणणे viṇṇe
to spin a cocoon or a web: विणणे viṇṇe

weave in Urdu

to form something by passing strands of material over and under one another: بونا bunnā

More languagesFewer languages

weave in Bengali: বুনা buna
weave in Telugu: అల్లిక allika, నేత nēta
weave in Malayalam: നെയ്യുക neyyuka
weave in Kannada: ನೆಯ್ಗೆ, ಹೆಣಿಗೆ, ಹೆಣಿಗೆಯ ರೀತಿ, ನೆಯ್ಗೆಯ ಸ್ವರೂಪ
weave in Punjabi: ਤਣਨਾ taṇnā
weave in Gujarati: વણાટ કરો, વણાટ કરવા માટે, વણાટ કરવા
weave in Odia: ବଯ଼ନ, ବୁଣିବା, ବଯ଼ନ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
weave in Sanskrit: वयति váyati
weave in Assamese: বোৱা büa
weave in Nepali: बुन्नु bunnu
weave in Pashto: اوبدل
weave in Tagalog: habi, lala
weave in Arabic: نَسَجَ nasaja
weave in Malay: tenun
weave in Indonesian: menenun
weave in Persian: بافتن bâftan
weave in Thai: ถัก tàk, ทอ tɔɔ, สาน sǎan, ชักใย chák-yai
weave in Vietnamese: dệt, đan, đánh võng
weave in Myanmar: ရက် rak

Examples of weave in a sentence

When I saw the other driver weaving erratically across the road, I decided to keep my distance.
She wove a beautiful basket out of reeds.
We were shocked to learn that the entire show was an ad lib performance. How did they weave it together so expertly on the fly?

All 40 example sentences with weave

Forms of weave

Verb
third-person singular present	weaves
present participle	weaving
past	wove
past	weaved
past participle	woven
past participle	weaved
past participle (nonstandard, colloquial)	wove
Noun
plural	weaves

Past tense of weave: wove or weaved

Plural of weave: weaves

Origin of weave

From Middle English weven (“to weave”), from Old English wefan (“to weave”), from Proto-West Germanic *weban, from Proto-Germanic *webaną, from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to weave, braid”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian weev, weew, weewe (“to weave”), Saterland Frisian weeuwe (“to weave”), Dutch weven (“to weave”), German weben (“to weave”), Luxembourgish wiewen (“to weave”), Yiddish וועבן (vebn, “to weave”), Danish væve (“to weave”), Faroese veva (“to weave”), Icelandic vefa (“to weave”), Norwegian Bokmål veve (“to weave”), Norwegian Nynorsk veva, veve (“to weave”), Swedish väva (“to weave”).

From Middle English weven (“to wander”); probably from Old Norse veifa (“move around, wave”), related to Latin vibrare.

Words formed from weave

Phrases with weave

Words that rhyme with weave

45 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about weave

What does weave mean?: Weave means to form something by passing lengths or strands of material over and under one another.
What is weave in Hindi?: Weave in Hindi is बुनना (bunnā), बुनाई (bunāī). See Weave meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is weave?: Weave can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce weave?: Weave is pronounced /wiːv/.
What is the past tense of weave?: The past tense of weave is wove.

Words near weave in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: weave (page history and authors); weave (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); weave (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਤਣਨਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); weave (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); weave (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); बुन्नु (Nepali) (page history and authors); اوبدل (Pashto) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-weave.ogg.

Cite this entry: “weave.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/weave. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.