weak
part of speech
adjective (weak, weaker, weakest)
meaning for a pupil
1) Weak means not strong; not having much power or energy in your body. tree →
2) Weak means easy to break or damage. tree →
3) Weak describes a drink or liquid that has a lot of water and not much taste, like weak tea. tree →
4) Weak means not good at something, like a weak point. tree →
5) A weak signal, light or sound is faint. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science, a weak force pushes or pulls only a little; a weak magnet attracts only from close by; weak bones need calcium; a weak acid is less harmful. After illness people feel weak. In maths, a «weak» student is not a nice phrase; say «needs more practice». In stories, the weak are often protected by heroes. Phrases: «feel weak», «weak spot», «weak point», «weak at the knees», «grow weak».
examples
- I felt weak after being ill. tree →
- The bridge was too weak to hold the truck. tree →
- This tea is too weak. tree →
- My weak spot is spelling. tree →
- The Wi-Fi signal is weak in the garden. tree →
- A weak magnet can only pick up one paper clip. tree →
- The baby bird was weak and couldn't fly. tree →
- Exercise makes weak muscles stronger. tree →
- The poor Dog was so weak he could not stand. tree →
note
Comparative weaker, superlative weakest. Noun: weakness; verb: weaken. Opposite: strong. Homophone: «week» (seven days). Trick: «weak» has «a» like «arm» — not strong arms.
In the corpora
- AI is good at the usual cases it has seen many times and often weak at unusual or brand-new ones.
- Computers are fast at sums and storing facts but weak at common sense, such as knowing when a joke hurts someone.
- You are good at some lessons and weak at others.
- Knowing your weak spots, and saying so, is part of being trustworthy.
- There is no real elephant graveyard; elephants die wherever they are, though bones may collect near water where weak old elephants stayed.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «weak» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.