weed
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English weed, weod, from Old English wēod (“weed”), Proto-Germanic *weudą (“weed”). Cognate with Dutch wied (“unwanted plant, weed”).
Noun
weed (countable and uncountable, plural weeds)
- (countable) Any plant regarded as unwanted at the place where, and at the time when it is growing.
- If it isn't in a straight line or marked with a label, it's a weed.
- 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:
- The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.
- Short for duckweed.
- (uncountable, archaic or obsolete) Underbrush; low shrubs.
- (Can we date this quote by Edmund Spenser and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- one rushing forth out of the thickest weed
- 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Œnone”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 128:
- A wild and wanton pard […] / Crouched fawning in the weed.
- (Can we date this quote by Edmund Spenser and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- A drug or the like made from the leaves of a plant.
- (uncountable, slang) Cannabis.
- (with "the", uncountable, slang) Tobacco.
- (obsolete, countable) A cigar.
- (countable) A weak horse, which is therefore unfit to breed from.
- (countable, British, informal) A puny person; one who has little physical strength.
- (countable, figuratively) Something unprofitable or troublesome; anything useless.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:marijuana
Derived terms
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also
Etymology 2
From Middle English weeden, weden, from Old English wēodian (“to weed”), from Proto-Germanic *weudōną (“to uproot, weed”). Cognate with West Frisian wjûde, wjudde (“to weed”), Dutch wieden (“to weed”), German Low German weden (“to weed”).
Verb
weed (third-person singular simple present weeds, present participle weeding, simple past and past participle weeded)
- To remove unwanted vegetation from a cultivated area.
- I weeded my flower bed.
Translations
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See also
Etymology 3
From Middle English wede, from Old English wǣd (“dress, attire, clothing, garment”), from Proto-Germanic *wēdiz, from which also wad, wadmal. Cognate with Dutch lijnwaad, Dutch gewaad, German Wat.
Noun
weed (plural weeds)
- (archaic) A garment or piece of clothing.
- (archaic) Clothing collectively; clothes, dress.
- 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5 Scene 3
- DON PEDRO. Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds;
- And then to Leonato's we will go.
- CLAUDIO. And Hymen now with luckier issue speed's,
- Than this for whom we rend'red up this woe!
- 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:
- These two dignified persons were followed by their respective attendants, and at a more humble distance by their guide, whose figure had nothing more remarkable than it derived from the usual weeds of a pilgrim.
- 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5 Scene 3
- (archaic) An article of dress worn in token of grief; a mourning garment or badge.
- He wore a weed on his hat.
- (archaic, especially in the plural as "widow's weeds") (Female) mourning apparel.
- 1641, John Milton, Of Reformation in England, Second Book:
- In a mourning weed, with ashes upon her head, and tears abundantly flowing.
- 1820, John Keats, “Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil. A Story from Boccaccio.”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, stanza XXIX, page 63:
- Poor Girl! put on thy stifling widow’s weed, / And ’scape at once from Hope’s accursed bands; [...]
- 1641, John Milton, Of Reformation in England, Second Book:
Translations
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Etymology 4
From Scots weid, weed. The longer form weidinonfa, wytenonfa (Old Scots wedonynpha) is attested since the 1500s. Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language analyses the longer form as a compound meaning "onfa(ll) of a weed", whereas the Scottish National Dictionary/DSL considers the short form a derivative of the longer form, and derives its first element from Old English wēdan (“to be mad or delirious”), from wōd (“mad, enraged”).
Noun
weed (plural weeds)
- (Scotland) A sudden illness or relapse, often attended with fever, which befalls those who are about to give birth, are giving birth, or have recently given birth or miscarried or aborted.
- 1822, William Campbell, Observations on the Disease usually termed Puerperal Fever, with Cases, in The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, volume 18:
- The patient […] aborted between the second and third month; […] felt herself so well on the second day after, that she went to the washing-green; and, on her return home in the evening, was seized with a violent rigor, which, by herself and those around her, was considered as the forerunner of a weed.
- 1822, William Campbell, Observations on the Disease usually termed Puerperal Fever, with Cases, in The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, volume 18:
- (Scotland) Lymphangitis in a horse.
Etymology 5
From the verb wee.
Verb
weed
- simple past and past participle of wee
References
- “weed”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- weed in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
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