Adjacent Words

Weed definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

WEED, n.
1. The general name of any plant that is useless or noxious. The word therefore has no definite application to any particular plant or species of plants; but whatever plants grow among corn, grass, or in hedges, and which are either of no use to man or injurious to crops, are denominated weeds.
2. Any kind of unprofitable substance among ores in mines, as mundic or marcasite.
WEED, n.
1. Properly, a garment, as in Spenser, but now used only in the plural, weeds, for the mourning apparel of a female; as a widows weeds.
2. An upper garment.
WEED, v.t.
1. To free from noxious plants; as, to weed corn or onions; to weed a garden.
2. To take away, as noxious plants; as, to weed a writing of invectives.
3. To free from any thing hurtful or offensive; as, to weed a kingdom of bad subjects.
4. To root out vice; as, to weed the hearts of the young.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: any plant that crowds out cultivated plants [ant: cultivated plant]
2: a black band worn by a man (on the arm or hat) as a sign of mourning [syn: weed, mourning band]
3: street names for marijuana [syn: pot, grass, green goddess, dope, weed, gage, sess, sens, smoke, skunk, locoweed, Mary Jane] v
1: clear of weeds; "weed the garden"

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English w?od weed, herb; akin to Old Saxon wiod weed Date: before 12th century 1. a. (1) a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth; especially one that tends to overgrow or choke out more desirable plants (2) a weedy growth of plants b. an aquatic plant; especially seaweed c. (1) tobacco products (2) marijuana 2. a. an obnoxious growth, thing, or person b. something like a weed in detrimental quality; especially an animal unfit to breed from II. verb Date: before 12th century intransitive verb to remove weeds or something harmful transitive verb 1. a. to clear of weeds <weed a garden> b. (1) to free from something hurtful or offensive (2) to remove the less desirable portions of 2. to get rid of (something harmful or superfluous) — often used with out <weed out the troublemakers> III. noun Etymology: Middle English wede, from Old English w?d, gew?de; akin to Old Norse v?th cloth, clothing and perhaps to Lithuanian austi to weave Date: before 12th century 1. garment — often used in plural 2. a. dress worn as a sign of mourning (as by a widow) — usually used in plural b. a band of crape worn on a man's hat as a sign of mourning — usually used in plural

Britannica Concise

Any plant growing where it is not wanted. On land under cultivation, weeds compete with crops for water, light, and nutrients. On rangelands and in pastures, weeds are those plants that grazing animals dislike or that are poisonous. Many weeds are hosts of plant disease organisms or of insect pests. Some originally unwanted plants later were found to have virtues and came under cultivation, while some cultivated plants, when transplanted to new climates, escaped cultivation and became weeds in the new habitat.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a wild plant growing where it is not wanted. 2 a thin weak-looking person or horse. 3 (prec. by the) sl. a marijuana. b tobacco. --v. 1 tr. a clear (an area) of weeds. b remove unwanted parts from. 2 tr. (foll. by out) a sort out (inferior or unwanted parts etc.) for removal. b rid (a quantity or company) of inferior or unwanted members etc. 3 intr. cut off or uproot weeds. Phrases and idioms: weed-grown overgrown with weeds. weed-killer a substance used to destroy weeds. Derivatives: weeder n. weedless adj. Etymology: OE weod, of unkn. orig.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Weed Weed, n. [OE. weed, weod, AS. we['o]d, wi['o]d, akin to OS. wiod, LG. woden the stalks and leaves of vegetables D. wieden to weed, OS. wiod[=o]n.] 1. Underbrush; low shrubs. [Obs. or Archaic] One rushing forth out of the thickest weed. --Spenser. A wild and wanton pard . . . Crouched fawning in the weed. --Tennyson. 2. Any plant growing in cultivated ground to the injury of the crop or desired vegetation, or to the disfigurement of the place; an unsightly, useless, or injurious plant. Too much manuring filled that field with weeds. --Denham. Note: The word has no definite application to any particular plant, or species of plants. Whatever plants grow among corn or grass, in hedges, or elsewhere, and are useless to man, injurious to crops, or unsightly or out of place, are denominated weeds. 3. Fig.: Something unprofitable or troublesome; anything useless. 4. (Stock Breeding) An animal unfit to breed from. 5. Tobacco, or a cigar. [Slang] Weed hook, a hook used for cutting away or extirpating weeds. --Tusser.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Weed Weed, n. [OE. wede, AS. w?de, w?d; akin to OS. w[=a]di, giw[=a]di, OFries, w?de, w?d, OD. wade, OHG. w[=a]t, Icel. v[=a]?, Zend vadh to clothe.] 1. A garment; clothing; especially, an upper or outer garment. ``Low?ly shepherd's weeds.'' --Spenser. ``Woman's weeds.'' --Shak. ``This beggar woman's weed.'' --Tennyson. He on his bed sat, the soft weeds he wore Put off. --Chapman. 2. An article of dress worn in token of grief; a mourning garment or badge; as, he wore a weed on his hat; especially, in the plural, mourning garb, as of a woman; as, a widow's weeds. In a mourning weed, with ashes upon her head, and tears abundantly flowing. --Milton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Weed Weed, n. A sudden illness or relapse, often attended with fever, which attacks women in childbed. [Scot.]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Weed Weed, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Weeded; p. pr. & vb. n. Weeding.] [AS. we['o]dian. See 3d Weed.] 1. To free from noxious plants; to clear of weeds; as, to weed corn or onions; to weed a garden. 2. To take away, as noxious plants; to remove, as something hurtful; to extirpate. ``Weed up thyme.'' --Shak. Wise fathers . . . weeding from their children ill things. --Ascham. Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. --Bacon. 3. To free from anything hurtful or offensive. He weeded the kingdom of such as were devoted to Elaiana. --Howell. 4. (Stock Breeding) To reject as unfit for breeding purposes.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(weeds, weeding, weeded) 1. A weed is a wild plant that grows in gardens or fields of crops and prevents the plants that you want from growing properly. ...a garden overgrown with weeds. N-COUNT 2. Weed is a plant that grows in water and usually forms a thick floating mass. There are many different kinds of weed. Large, clogging banks of weed are the only problem. N-VAR 3. If you weed an area, you remove the weeds from it. Caspar was weeding the garden... Try not to walk on the flower beds when weeding or hoeing. VERB: V n, V • weeding She taught me to do the weeding.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Rid of weeds, free from noxious plants. 2. Root out, extirpate, take away, remove, eradicate. 3. Free, rid.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

To take a part. The kiddey weeded the swell's screens; the youth took some of the gentleman's bank notes.

Moby Thesaurus

Canada thistle, DET, DMT, LSD, Mary Jane, STP, THC, abate, abrade, abstract, acid, amphibian, angiosperm, annual, antidepressant, aquatic plant, ataractic, backset, bate, biennial, black sheep, blemish, bones, boo, brake, burdock, burr, cannabis, chaff, chicory, cosmopolite, crab grass, creeping buttercup, culm, cultivate, culture, curtail, cut, cutting, dandelion, deadwood, deciduous plant, decrease, deduct, delve, depreciate, derogate, detract, dicot, dicotyledon, diethyltryptamine, dig, dimethyltryptamine, diminish, dishwater, disparage, dock, draff, drain, dregs, dress, dust, eat away, ephemeral, erode, evergreen, exotic, extract, fallow, fertilize, file away, filings, flowering plant, force, foreign body, foreign intruder, fungus, gage, gametophyte, ganja, garbage, gash, grass, gymnosperm, hallucinogen, harrow, hash, hashish, hay, hemp, hoe, hogwash, horsetail, husks, hydrophyte, impair, impurity, intruder, jimsonweed, joint, kava, leach, leavings, lees, lessen, list, mallow, marijuana, mescal, mescal bean, mescal button, mescaline, milkweed, mind-altering drug, mind-blowing drug, mind-expanding drug, misfit, monkey wrench, monocot, monocotyl, morning glory seeds, mote, mulch, mustard, nettle, oddball, offal, offscourings, orts, parings, perennial, peyote, plant, plantain, plow, poison ivy, poke, pokeweed, polycot, polycotyl, polycotyledon, pot, potsherds, prune, psilocin, psilocybin, psychedelic, psychic energizer, psychoactive drug, psychochemical, psychotomimetic, purify, rags, rake, raspings, reduce, reefer, refine, refuse, remove, retrench, roach, rub away, scourings, scrap iron, scraps, scum, seed plant, seedling, shards, shavings, shorten, slack, slag, sliver, slop, slops, spade, speck, spermatophyte, splinter, sporophyte, stick, stone, stubble, subduct, subtract, sweepings, swill, take away, take from, tares, tea, thallophyte, thin, thin out, thistle, till, till the soil, tranquilizer, triennial, vascular plant, vegetable, wastage, waste, waste matter, wastepaper, wear away, weed out, weeds, withdraw, work