- 1 not physically strong She is still weak after her illness. His legs felt weak. She suffered from a weak heart. Oxford Collocations Dictionary verbsappear, be, feel, … adverbextremely, fairly, very, … prepositionat, from, in, … phrasesweak at the knees See full entry See related entries: Poor health likely to break
- 2 that cannot support a lot of weight; likely to break That bridge is too weak for heavy traffic. without power
- 3 easy to influence; not having much power a weak and cowardly man In a weak moment (= when I was easily persuaded) I said she could borrow the car. a weak leader The unions have always been weak in this industry. poor/sick people
- 4the weak noun [plural] people who are poor, sick or without power currency/economy
- 5 not financially strong or successful a weak currency The economy is very weak. not good at something
- 6 not good at something a weak team weak in something I was always weak in the science subjects. Oxford Collocations Dictionary verbsappear, be, feel, … adverbextremely, fairly, very, … prepositionat, from, in, … phrasesweak at the knees See full entry not convincing
- 7 that people are not likely to believe or be persuaded by synonym unconvincing weak arguments I enjoyed the movie but I thought the ending was very weak. Oxford Collocations Dictionary verbsappear, be, feel, … adverbextremely, fairly, very, … prepositionat, from, in, … phrasesweak at the knees See full entry hard to see/hear
- 8 not easily seen or heard a weak light/signal/sound without enthusiasm
- 9done without enthusiasm or energy a weak smile He made a weak attempt to look cheerful. liquid
- 10 a weak liquid contains a lot of water weak tea See related entries: Taste of food point/spot
- 11 weak point/spot the part of a person’s character, an argument, etc. that is easy to attack or criticize The team's weak points are in defence. He knew her weak spot where Steve was concerned. grammar
- 12 a weak verb forms the past tense and past participle by adding a regular ending and not by changing a vowel. In English this is done by adding -d, -ed or -t (for example walk, walked). phonetics
- 13 (of the pronunciation of some words) used when there is no stress on the word. For example, the weak form of and is/ən/ or /n/, as in bread and butter/bred n bʌtə(r)/. opposite strong Word OriginOld English wāc ‘pliant’, ‘of little worth’, ‘not steadfast’, reinforced in Middle English by Old Norse veikr, from a Germanic base meaning ‘yield, give way’.Extra examples He was weak with hunger. He’s weak in English. Her legs felt suddenly weak. She was weak from shock. She’s rather weak at languages. The essay was a bit weak on detail. The judge decided the evidence was inherently weak and inconsistent. When the spasm passed, it left him weak and sweating. The case for the prosecution was rather weak. The weak winter sunlight spread across the lake. weak arguments/evidenceIdioms
adjective jump to other results
BrE BrE//wiːk//; NAmE NAmE//wiːk//
(weaker, weakest) Poor health, Taste of food(humorous, saying) you intend to do good things but you are too lazy, weak or busy to actually do them
(informal) hardly able to stand because of emotion, fear, illness, etc. His sudden smile made her go weak at the knees. See related entries: Fear, Being ill
the point at which a system or an organization is most likely to fail She went straight for the one weak link in the chain of his argument.
Check pronunciation: weak
