weed

English Online Dictionary. What means weed‎? What does weed mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wiːd/
• Homophone: we'd
• Rhymes: -iːd

Etymology 1

From Middle English weed, weod, from Old English wēod (“weed”), from Proto-West Germanic *weud (“weed”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Jood (“weed”), West Frisian wjûd (“weed”), Dutch wied (“unwanted plant, weed”), German Low German Weed (“weed”), Old High German wiota (“fern”). See also woad.

Noun

weed (countable and uncountable, plural weeds)

2. (countable) Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing.
3. Short for duckweed.
4. (uncountable, archaic or obsolete) Underbrush; low shrubs.
5. A drug or the like made from the leaves of a plant.
   1. (uncountable, informal) Cannabis.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:marijuana
   2. (with "the", uncountable, colloquial) Tobacco.
   3. (obsolete, countable) A cigar.
6. (countable) A weak horse, which is therefore unfit to breed from.
7. (countable, British, informal) A puny person; one who has little physical strength.
8. (countable, figuratively) Something unprofitable or troublesome; anything useless.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• grow like a weed
• weeds

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)

1. To remove unwanted vegetation from a cultivated area (especially grass).

2. (figurative) To pilfer the best items from a collection.
3. (library science) To systematically remove materials from a library collection based on a set of criteria.

Translations

See also

• weed out

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)

1. (archaic) A garment or piece of clothing.
2. (archaic) Clothing collectively; clothes, dress.
3. (archaic) An article of dress worn in token of grief; a mourning garment or badge.

4. (archaic) A hatband.
5. (archaic) Especially in the plural as widow's weeds: (female) mourning apparel.

Translations

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 (countable and uncountable, plural weeds)

1. (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.
2. (Scotland) Lymphangitis in a horse.

Etymology 5

From the verb wee.

Verb

weed

1. 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.
• (tobacco; a cigar): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary