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weedy. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
weedy, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
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English
Etymology
From weed + -y.
Pronunciation
Adjective
weedy (comparative weedier, superlative weediest)
- Abounding with weeds.
weedy grounds
a weedy garden
weedy corn
- 1577, Barnabe Googe (translator), The Foure Bookes of Husbandry, collected by M. Conradus Heresbachius, London: Richard Watkins, Book 1, p. 27,
- Wheate delighteth in a leuell, riche, warme, and a drye ground: a shaddowy, weedy, and a hilly ground, it loueth not
1871, William Cullen Bryant, “The Path”, in Poems, New York: Appleton, page 354:See, from the weedy earth a rivulet break
And purl along the untrodden wilderness;
- Of, relating to or resembling weeds.
- Synonym: weedlike
1894, Catharine Parr Traill, “Our Native Grasses”, in Pearls and Pebbles, London: Sampson Low, Marston, page 214:The wild rice has a peculiar weedy, smoky flavor, but if properly cooked is very delicious.
1940, Raymond Chandler, chapter 5, in Farewell, My Lovely:She had weedy hair of that vague color which is neither brown nor blond, that hasn't enough life in it to be ginger, and isn't clean enough to be gray.
- Consisting of weeds.
c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds
Clamb’ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook.
1854, Henry David Thoreau, “The Bean-Field”, in Walden, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, page 175:Daily the beans saw me come to their rescue armed with a hoe, and thin the ranks of their enemies, filling up the trenches with weedy dead.
- 1917, James Joyce, “Flood” in Poetry, Volume 10, April-September, 1917, p. 73,
- A waste of waters ruthlessly
- Sways and uplifts its weedy mane,
- Where brooding day stares down upon the sea
- In dull disdain.
- (botany) Characteristic of a plant that grows rapidly and spreads invasively, and which grows opportunistically in cracks of sidewalks and disturbed areas.
a weedy species
a weedy vine
1614, Gervase Markham, The Second Booke of the English Husbandman, London: John Browne, Part 2, Chapter 7, pp. 84-85:[…] and so your soyle being drayned and kept dry, all those wéedy kindes of grasse will soone perish.
- (figurative, of a person or animal) Small and weak.
- Synonyms: scraggy, ungainly; see also Thesaurus:scrawny
a weedy lad
1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, chapter 8, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. , volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder and Co., , published 1866, →OCLC:I’ll bring Grace, who is looking rather pale and weedy; growing too fast, I’m afraid.
- 1924, Edith Wharton, The Spark (The Sixties), Chapter 2, in Old New York, New York: 1981, p. 146,
- Byrne was hurling himself across the field, crouched on the neck of his somewhat weedy mount
1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 2, in Red Harvest:We were about the same age. He was weedy, nearly a head taller than I, but fifty pounds lighter.
- (figurative, UK, Ireland, informal) Lacking power or effectiveness.
- Synonyms: feeble; see also Thesaurus:weak
a weedy excuse
a weedy attempt
a weedy motor
- 2016, Orla Kiely, quoted in “Designs for life from Orla Kiely,” Irish Independent, 3 April, 2016,
- We wanted to make sure that our jewellery made a statement, that it wasn't wimpy or weedy.
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