weichen

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See also: Weichen

German

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈvaɪ̯çn̩/, /ˈvaɪ̯çən/
  • Audio:(file)

Etymology 1

From Middle High German wīchen, from Old High German wīchan, from Proto-West Germanic *wīkwan, from Proto-Germanic *wīkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (to bend, curve; to divide).

Verb

weichen (class 1 strong, third-person singular present weicht, past tense wich, past participle gewichen, auxiliary sein)

  1. (intransitive) to move farther away, to make room, to yield
  2. (intransitive, formal) to wane, to decrease
Conjugation
Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Middle High German weichen, from Old High German weihhen, from Proto-West Germanic *waikwijan. By surface analysis, weich (adjective) +‎ -en.

Verb

weichen (weak, third-person singular present weicht, past tense weichte, past participle geweicht, auxiliary haben or sein)

  1. (transitive) to soften, to make more flexible or yielding
  2. (intransitive) to soften
Usage notes
  • The simplex is rare. The compounds below are much more common.
Conjugation
Derived terms

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Adjective

weichen

  1. inflection of weich:
    1. strong genitive masculine/neuter singular
    2. weak/mixed genitive/dative all-gender singular
    3. strong/weak/mixed accusative masculine singular
    4. strong dative plural
    5. weak/mixed all-case plural

Further reading

  • weichen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • weichen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • weichen” in Duden online
  • weichen” in OpenThesaurus.de