weedy

comparative weedier · superlative weediest

1. Abounding with weeds.

   weedy corn

   4 more examples

   weedy grounds

   a weedy garden

   1577, Barnabe Googe (translator), The Foure Bookes of Husbandry, collected by M. Conradus Heresbachius, London: Richard Watkins, Book 1, p. 27, Wheate delighteth in a leuell, riche, warme, and a drye ground: a shaddowy, weedy, and a hilly ground, it loueth not […]

   See, from the weedy earth a rivulet break And purl along the untrodden wilderness;

   1871, William Cullen Bryant, “The Path”, in Poems, New York: Appleton, page 354

2. Of, relating to or resembling weeds.

   A faint weedy smell came up from the river […]

   1925, Aldous Huxley, Those Barren Leaves, Part 2, Chapter 5

   2 more examples

   The wild rice has a peculiar weedy, smoky flavor, but if properly cooked is very delicious.

   1894, Catharine Parr Traill, “Our Native Grasses”, in Pearls and Pebbles, London: Sampson Low, Marston, page 214

   She had weedy hair of that vague color which is neither brown nor blond, that hasn't enough life in it to be ginger, and isn't clean enough to be gray.

   1940, Raymond Chandler, chapter 5, in Farewell, My Lovely

   Synonyms: weedlike

3. Consisting of weeds.

   1917, James Joyce, “Flood” in Poetry, Volume 10, April-September, 1917, p. 73, A waste of waters ruthlessly Sways and uplifts its weedy mane, Where brooding day stares down upon the sea In dull disdain.

   2 more examples

   There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds Clamb’ring to hang, an envious sliver broke, When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii]

   Daily the beans saw me come to their rescue armed with a hoe, and thin the ranks of their enemies, filling up the trenches with weedy dead.

   1854, Henry David Thoreau, “The Bean-Field”, in Walden, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, page 175

4. biologyCharacteristic of a plant that grows rapidly and spreads invasively, and which grows opportunistically in cracks of sidewalks and disturbed areas.

   a weedy vine

   2 more examples

   a weedy species

   […] and so your soyle being drayned and kept dry, all those wéedy kindes of grasse will soone perish.

   1614, Gervase Markham, The Second Booke of the English Husbandman, London: John Browne, Part 2, Chapter 7, pp. 84-85

5. figurativelySmall and weak.

   a weedy lad

   3 more examples

   I’ll bring Grace, who is looking rather pale and weedy; growing too fast, I’m afraid.

   1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, chapter 8, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1866, →OCLC

   1924, Edith Wharton, The Spark (The Sixties), Chapter 2, in Old New York, New York: 1981, p. 146, Byrne was hurling himself across the field, crouched on the neck of his somewhat weedy mount […]

   We were about the same age. He was weedy, nearly a head taller than I, but fifty pounds lighter.

   1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 2, in Red Harvest

   Synonyms: scraggy, ungainly, angular, anorexic, carrion, emaciated, gangling, gangly

6. IrelandUKfigurativelyinformalLacking power or effectiveness.

   a weedy motor

   4 more examples

   a weedy excuse

   a weedy attempt

   Everything in moderation is a bit of a weedy call to arms, but as a rule for living it’s hard to beat.

   2010 June 22, Juliet Woods, “We all know fast food is bad for us”, in The Telegraph

   2016, Orla Kiely, quoted in “Designs for life from Orla Kiely,” Irish Independent, 3 April, 2016, We wanted to make sure that our jewellery made a statement, that it wasn't wimpy or weedy.

   Synonyms: feeble, anemic, breakable, broken-down, damaged, debilitated, decrepit, delicate