weaken
part of speech
verb (weaken, weakens, weakened, weakening)
meaning for a pupil
1) To weaken means to become weaker, or to make someone or something weaker, less strong or less powerful. tree →
2) To weaken can mean to start to give in or change your mind («He weakened and let us stay up late»). tree →
sense in the lessons
In science it is used for forces, materials and health (illness weakens the body, rust weakens metal, a storm weakens as it crosses land, a solution weakens when you add water). In stories a hero or enemy weakens before the end. Opposite: «strengthen». Phrases: «weaken the structure», «weakened by illness».
examples
- The storm weakened as it moved over land. tree →
- Rust can weaken a metal bridge. tree →
- Being ill for a week weakened her. tree →
- Adding water weakens the squash. tree →
- Mum weakened and bought us ice cream. tree →
- Cracks weakened the wall, so it was unsafe. tree →
- The magic potion weakened the dragon. tree →
- Not sleeping enough can weaken your body. tree →
- The reason for wearing these, he said, was that his eyes had been weakened by the work of many years. tree →
note
From «weak» plus «-en» (to make). Regular: «weakened». Homophone trap: «weak» (not strong) and «week» (seven days) sound the same.
In the corpora
- Komodo dragons have venom glands in their jaws; the venom stops blood clotting and weakens prey.
- Soap weakens the "skin" of water, its surface tension.
- A civil war and smallpox had already weakened the Inca, and Spain took over their empire.
- Old bridges and buildings can weaken over time, so engineers inspect them regularly.
- Astronauts' muscles and bones weaken in space, so they exercise about two hours every day.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «weaken» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.