Meaning

1 senses
  1. Frail, sickly or of a delicate constitution; weak.

More definitions
  • lacking bodily or muscular strength or vitality

Examples

4 sentences
  1. She protested weakly, but ended up joining in with everyone else.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · Chrikaru · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  2. Miroslav asked Anna if she could eat and she nodded very weakly.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · Amastan · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  3. Vladimir breathed very weakly.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · Amastan · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  4. Bruce took the book weakly.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · Wittydev · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Origin

From Old English wāclīċe (“weakly”), equivalent to weak + -ly (adjectival suffix); compare

From Old English wāclīċe (“weakly”), equivalent to weak + -ly (adjectival suffix); compare Old English wāclīċ (“weak; ignoble; mean”), and Old Norse veikligr (“weakly; sick”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *waikalīkaz (“weakly; weak”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

weaklier, weakliest
Comparativeweaklier Lesson
Superlativeweakliest Lesson

regular

Synonyms

7 synonyms
Close in meaning

Word family

1 related words
Derivedweakliness

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
weakly — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto