weakly
Frail, sickly or of a delicate constitutionFrail, sickly or of a delicate constitution; weak.
» She protested weakly, but ended up joining in with everyone else.
Chrikaru · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 sensesFrail, sickly or of a delicate constitution; weak.
- lacking bodily or muscular strength or vitality
Examples
4 sentencesShe protested weakly, but ended up joining in with everyone else.
Miroslav asked Anna if she could eat and she nodded very weakly.
Vladimir breathed very weakly.
Bruce took the book weakly.
Origin
From Old English wāclīċe (“weakly”), equivalent to weak + -ly (adjectival suffix); compareFrom 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, weakliestSynonyms
7 synonymsWord family
1 related wordsLessons for this word
2 lessons- A2Comparatives — Because it has a comparative form
- A2Superlatives — Because it has a superlative form
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.