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1665 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 1 13 They went into the Weed-beds of the Gulf of Florida.

a1682 Sir T. Browne Acct. Fishes Norfolk in Wks. (1835) IV. 330 A weed-fish, somewhat like a haddock.

1782 M. Delany Autobiogr. & Corr. (1861) I. 368 My amusement was running after butterflies and gathering weed nosegays.

1791 W. Marshall Minutes in Rural Econ. W. Eng. (1796) II. 279 The weed seeds having spent themselves,..the dressing will be turned in.

1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm III. 993 The weeds and weed-roots will then be seen upon the surface.

1847 A. Smith Christopher Tadpole (1848) xlv. 395 Metal weed-cases.

1851 C. Kingsley Yeast x. 173 Even if marriage was but one weed-field of temptations, as these miserable pedants say.

1899 Contemp. Rev. Dec. 884 One of those curious round weed-bushes known as ‘tumble weeds’.

1923 R. Kipling Irish Guards in Great War I. 222 They broke and disappeared in the rank weed-growth.

1931 Railway Age 10 Oct. 544/2 Methods of weed removal designed to eliminate hand work will result in savings of $30 to $150 per mile of track per year.

1934 A. Huxley Beyond Mexique Bay 249 Lawrence wrote eloquently of Oaxaca and Lake Chapala,..of the merits of that rank weed-life of the natural man.

?1953 D. Thomas Let. in Sel. Lett. (1966) 416 In the slimy squid-rows of the sea there's such a weed-drift and clamour of old plankton drinkers.

1995 R. Cousens & M. Mortimer Dynamics Weed Populations 292 The chemical used will depend on how cross-resistance changes from year to year, the density of the weed infestation and the prices of different products.