weakly
/ˈwiːkli
/adverb
In a way that lacks strength or force: she leaned weakly against the wall...
- She weakly summoned the strength to murmur a goodbye, and then hung up.
- When he let go, Carrie smiled weakly, as the force of the hug had taken a lot out of her, and opened her sketchbook to work on a drawing.
- I smile weakly and am forced to stand as the boat heads back home.
adjective (weaklier, weakliest)
Sickly; not robust: if the lambs were weakly we had to feed them by hand...
- The purpose of an infant incubator is to secure and improve the chances of survival of a premature or weakly infant.
- Frederic Chopin was a weakly child from the first.
- Born the son of a samurai, he was weakly as a child.
Derivatives
weakliness
- After a time, I overcame my original weakliness of constitution, and was just a bonny, strong-looking lad, whom every passer-by noticed when my father took me with him to the nearest town.
- If the weakliness is an inherited characteristic, it is unfortunate that the people who have it should have children, because they will pass it on, generation after generation.