weak – English adjective declension

English adjective forms of weak

Adjective: weak

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparativeweaker
Superlativeweakest

Perifrastic

Sample Sentences

  • The child was too weak to move the boulder.
  • They easily guessed his weak computer password.
  • a poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man [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, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:]
  • weak with hunger, mad with love [1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:]
  • The prospects for the global economy as outlined by the IMF are the third weakest since 2001, behind only the 2008 financial crisis and the worst phase of the coronavirus pandemic. Global growth has fallen below 2% just five times since 1970. [2022 October 11, Julia Horowitz, “‘The worst is yet to come’: IMF issues stark recession warning”, in CNN, archived from the original on 05 Aug 2025:]
  • a weak timber; a weak rope
  • weak resolutions; weak virtue
  • Guard thy heart / On this weak side, where most our nature fails. [1703, Nicholas Rowe, The Fair Penitent, act I, scene I:]
  • 'Cause sugar pie, honey bunch
  • You know that I'm weak for you
  • Can't help myself
  • I love you and nobody else [2065 April 23, “I Can't Help Myself”, in Four Tops Second Album, performed by The Four Tops:]
  • It’s really good to hear your voice
  • Sayin' my name, it sounds so sweet
  • Comin' from the lips of an angel
  • Hearin' those words, it makes me weak [2006 April 3, “Lips Of An Angel”, in Extreme Behavior, performed by Hinder:]
  • That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired. [1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:]
  • We were served stale bread and weak tea.
  • The verb to walk is weak because it has a past tense of walked and all forms are inflected by adding the typical suffix (ie is regular) to the stem walk- (ie has no vowel changes).
  • The verb to run is strong, not weak, because the past tense is ran.
  • The verb to be is neither weak nor strong, instead it is highly irregular in all inflections; its third person present tense is is instead of *bes (which can even be seen in this very sentence) and its past tense is was or were instead of *bed or *beed or anything similar, just to name a few of its inflections.
  • In some Semitic languages such as Akkadian, some or all gutturals are weak and often disappear, but in others such as Arabic and Ugaritic, they are strong and never disappear.
  • The reflexes of the Proto-Semitic verb *mawut- (“to die”) are often weak due to the presence of w, for example: Arabic مَاتَ (māta), Hebrew מֵת (mēṯ), and Ugaritic 𐎎𐎚 (mt /⁠māta⁠/).
  • The Finnish verb kääntää (“to translate”) inflects to the singular imperative as käännä, showing the weak gradation nt > nn because it historically ended in a consonant which closed the syllable.
  • Paradigmatic slots in which the accent and correlating e-grade are positioned further to the left of the word are traditionally termed strong, those with accent and e-grade further to the right, are called weak. In all nouns and verbs which show these alternations, the strong and the weak forms are predictable from the morphological category […]. [2007, James Clackson, Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, section 3.5, page 79:]
  • The PIE zero grade was most often found in weak stems, such as in *mn̥téys (“of thought, from thinking”, genitive/ablative singular of *méntis) and *mn̥yóh₂er (“I am thinking”). Over time it spread to strong stems, i.e. *mń̥tis, by processes of analogy and leveling. The full grade was persistent in the first syllable of reduplicated stative verbs: strong *tetórph₂e (“I am satisfied”), weak *tetr̥pmé (“we all are satisfied”), though for some verbs such as *pí-ph₃-e- (“to drink”) there was an unusual i-grade which may have lacked any distinct weak counterpart.
  • All middle forms of Indo-European verbs are traditionally weak. Middle-only verbs can still be compared to hypothetical strong stems, such as weak *ǵn̥h₁-yé- (e.g. *ǵn̥h₁yéto, “(he/she/it) was born”) versus strong *ǵénh₁-ye-.
  • a weak acid
  • a weak base
  • When we say that an acid is weak, we refer only to its degree of dissociation, not to its degree of corrosiveness; but it is true that those two traits often correlate, though.
  • This place is weak.
  • If evil thence ensue, / She first his weak indulgence will accuse. [1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:]
  • The prosecution advanced a weak case.
  • convinced of his weak arguing [1671, John Milton, “The Third Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:]
  • There are two fundamental theorems of calculus. Both relate differentiation to integration. In most calculus courses, the Second Fundamental Theorem is usually proved first and then used to prove the First Fundamental Theorem. Unfortunately, this results in a First Fundamental Theorem that is weaker than it could be. [2012, Joseph L. Taylor, Foundations of Analysis, American Mathematical Society, page 114:]
  • a weak sentence; a weak style
  • It could turn out that An Unexpected Journey is the weakest of this trilogy, the necessary preamble before less-stultifying action and more engaging character development ensue. But, to paraphrase the sweet and stout-hearted Bilbo himself, this adventure won’t just make you late for dinner. It might make you miss breakfast and lunch, too. Only the most dedicated Middle-earthers will find that the hunger pangs are worth it. [2012 December 15, Ann Hornaday, “‘The Hobbit’ Is Long, Feels Even Longer”, in Valley News, volume 61, number 190, page C3, column 4:]
  • Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers. [c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:]
  • a weak market; wheat is weak at present
  • a weak negative

Adjectives inflected like weak

sallow, smooth, slight, sleigh, sordid, somber, shweet, shrill, shrewd, yellow, yaller, hard knock, DRY, Greek, cut short, unquiet, unclean, indiscreet, chipper, straicht, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)

Etymology

1. From Middle English waik, wayk, wayke, weik, weyk, borrowed from Old Norse veikr (“weak”), from Proto-Germanic *waikwaz (“weak, yielded, pliant, bendsome”), from *wīkwaną (“to cease, fold, yield; to retreat”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyg- (“to bend, turn, wind”), from *weh₁y- (“to plait, twist, weave, wind; to cover, enclose, wrap”).
2. Cognates
3. Cognate with Old English wāc (“bendsome, weak”), Saterland Frisian wook (“soft, gentle, tender”), West Frisian weak (“soft”), Dutch week (“soft, weak”), German weich (“soft, weak”), Luxembourgish weech (“weak”), Yiddish ווייך (veykh, “soft”), Danish veg (“weak”), Faroese and Icelandic veikur (“weak”), Norwegian Bokmål veik, vek (“weak; pliant”), Norwegian Nynorsk veik (“weak”), Swedish vek (“weak, pliant”), Estonian vaik, vaikne (“quiet”), Finnish vaieta (“to fall silent; to be silent; to keep silent; to suppress by not discussing”), Ingrian vaiketa (“quiet down”); also Cornish gwigh (“winkles”), Irish faocha, faochóg (“periwinkle”), Latin vicis (“change; time; season; succession; lot; place, room, stead”), vieo (“to bend”), Ancient Greek οἴγω (oígō, “to open”), Albanian vig (“bier, litter, stretcher”), Lithuanian vyti (“to twist, wind”), Belarusian віць (vicʹ, “to twist, weave”), Bulgarian ви́я (víja, “to bend, twist; to roam; to swirl”), Czech vít (“to weave, wind; to wrap”), Polish and Upper Sorbian wić (“to plait, weave; to wriggle, writhe”), Russian вить (vitʹ, “to wind; to twist, weave”), Serbo-Croatian ви̏ти, vȉti (“to twist”), Slovene viti (“to twist”), Ukrainian ви́ти (výty, “to twist, wind; to plait; to build a nest; to curl”), Northern Kurdish avêtin, avitin, avîtin, havêtin, havîtin (“to cast, throw”), Persian آویختن (âvixtan, “to hang, suspend”), بیختن (bēxtan / bixtan, “to sift”), Sanskrit वेग (vega, “speed, impetus; stream; agitation; impetuosity; strength; haste; the flight of an arrow; love; delight; expulsion; semen; attack; constipation”).
4. Related to Old English wīcan (“to yield”). Related to week and wick.
5. The grammar sense is a calque of German schwach. See: Dutch Adjectives 'week', German Adjectives 'weich', Swedish Adjectives 'vek', Finnish Adjectives 'vaieta'.

Verbs referencing "weak"

English Adjectives wicked, German Adjectives weich.