a. Wanting in moral strength for endurance or resistance; lacking fortitude or courage, strength of purpose or will; unsteadfast, wavering.

b. In the translations of the Bible from Tyndale onward, used to render Greek ἀσθενής, ἀσθενῶν, applied by St. Paul (esp. in Romans xiv and 1 Corinthians viii) to believers whose scruples, though unsound, should be treated with tenderness, lest they should be led by the example of the more enlightened into acts condemned by their conscience. Hence allusively in weaker brethren (often supposed to be a scriptural phrase), applied to the more timorous members of a party, who are in danger of being shocked by extreme statements of principle or policy; weak sister (colloquial, originally U.S.), an ineffectual or unreliable person (of either sex); a person of weak character; also transferred.In the Wycliffite and other early versions the rendering is ‘sick’ (Vulgate infirmus).

c. of actions, attributes, etc.

d. Of features, expression of countenance, etc.: Indicating weakness of character or intention.

e. Deficient in power to control emotion; unduly swayed by grief, compassion, or affection. Of tears: Indicating weakness.

a. Wanting in strength and skill as a combatant; relatively deficient in fighting power as shown by the result of the contest.

b. Deficient as a fighting power in numbers, resources, etc. †Also const. of.

†c. transf. weak of friends: having few influential friends. Obsolete.

d. Of a position: Poorly garrisoned.

e. Chess. Of a man: Insufficiently protected against capture.

f. Wanting in skill as a performer in a game, sport, athletic exercise, contest, etc. Of play, a move, stroke: Exhibiting want of skill. So, weak place, weak spot (in a person's play).

a. Of a person, the body, limbs: Deficient in bodily or muscular strength; esp. of a child or woman, inferior in respect of physical strength.

b. absol. (Cf. A. 10b.)

c. the weaker vessel [compare vessel n.¹ 3] , in 1 Peter iii. 7 said of the wife as compared with the husband; hence occasionally used jocularly for ‘the wife’ or female partner. the weaker sex: see sex n.¹ Phrases 1a.

d. of physical effort.

a. Deficient in bodily vigour through age, sickness, privation, etc.; wanting in strength of the vital functions of the body; debilitated.

b. Feeble through exhaustion; faint. ? Now chiefly dialect.

a. Constitutionally feeble; not vigorous or robust in health.

b. of a tree, plant, fruit, etc.

a. Of the mind or mental faculties: Deficient in power.

b. Lacking force of intellect or strength of mind; easily deceived, credulous.

c. Feeble (in one's intellect, the brain, head, etc.).

a. Of a person's abilities, productions, qualities, etc. (Often used in modesty or self-disparagement.)

b. Of a person: Wanting in ability, ill-qualified, unskilled or inefficient in, of or to do (something).

c. Of literary work or composition: Showing little evidence of ability.

a. Wanting in power or authority over others.

b. absol. (Cf. A. 4b.)

c. of power, strength, authority, etc.

a. Cards. Of a game, hand, suit: Not of a commanding nature or value. Of a player: Ill-provided with commanding cards (in a specified suit).

b. Money-market. Of money or stock: Insufficient to meet a demand or to carry on operations. Similarly of a holder of stock.

a. of natural agents, etc.

†b. Of food: Not highly nourishing. Obsolete.

c. Of the voice: Feeble in enunciation.

d. Of the pulse: Having little force.

e. Of faith, conviction, affection, passions: Wanting in strength, not intense.

g. Of a dose of medicine: Less in quantity (and hence in power) than the normal dose.

†h. Of slumber: Light, not deep or heavy. Obsolete.

i. Of a chance: Slight, slender, small in degree.

j. Of an attack of disease: Not severe or acute.

k. Physics. Applied to one of the four known kinds of force between particles, which is effective only at distances less than about 10^—15 cm., is very much weaker than the electromagnetic and the strong interactions, and conserves neither strangeness, parity, nor isospin. Frequently in (the) weak force.

a. Wanting in effectiveness.

b. Of evidence, argument, etc.: Not convincing. Of a case, title, etc.: Not having strong evidence.

a. Having less than the full or proper amount of a specific ingredient. Of an infusion: Over-diluted.

b. spec. of iron.

c. Of corn: ? Having a small proportion of grain to the chaff.

d. Of flour: Made from soft wheat, so that it contains relatively less gluten and more starch, rises less with yeast, and is less cohesive. Of wheat: Soft.

e. Of the mixture in an internal-combustion engine: = lean adj. 4g.

a. Wanting in material strength, unsound, insecure.

b. figurative and in figurative context. Frequently in weak link: the weakest or least dependable of a number of interdependent items; also in Proverb. Cf. weak point at sense A. 16e(b) (a), sense A. 16e.

c. Of a fortified place: Not possessed of sound defence (esp. in some part or on a particular side). Also †weak-breach (in quot. figurative).

d. weak side [compare French côté faible] . (a) Of a fortified place: A side defectively fortified or unsound in its defences. (b) figurative.

e. weak point. (a) Of a thing: The point or feature where it is defective or unsound. (b) (A person's) weak point, a failing or weakness (moral or intellectual).

a. Of colours, markings: Not vivid.

b. Mining and Geology. (See quot. 1884.)

c. Of an animal's scent: Faint.

a. Of Germanic nouns and adjectives: Belonging to any of the declensions in which the stem in Old Germanic ended in -n.

b. Of Germanic verbs: Forming the preterite by the addition of a suffix.

c. In Greek grammar, sometimes applied to the sigmatic or ‘first’ aorist, in contradistinction to the ‘second’ or ‘strong’ aorist.

d. In Sanskrit grammar, the designation of the reduced stems of nouns, and of the cases in which the reduced stem occurs.

e. In Hebrew and Syriac grammar applied to certain consonants (otherwise called ‘feeble’) and to verbs which have one or more of these in the root.

f. The designation of the ablaut-grade which results from absence of stress.