Definition of "weed"

weed¹

/wiːd/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural weeds
1. (countable) Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing.
  Quotations
  The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.
  1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick
2. Short for duckweed.
3. (uncountable, archaic or obsolete) Underbrush; low shrubs.
  Quotations
  one rushing forth out of the thickest weed
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 4
  A wild and wanton pard […] / Crouched fawning in the weed.
  1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Œnone”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], page 128
4. A drug or the like made from the leaves of a plant.
  1. (uncountable, informal) Cannabis.
    Quotations
    And I predict you will laugh harder than ever. I’m not saying I’m any funnier. I’m saying weed is now legal in D.C.
    2015 March 14, Barack Obama, Remarks by the President at the 2015 Gridiron Dinner‎
  2. (with "the", uncountable, colloquial) Tobacco.
  3. (obsolete, countable) A cigar.
5. (countable) A weak horse, which is therefore unfit to breed from.
6. (countable, Britain, informal) A puny person; one who has little physical strength.
7. (countable, figuratively) Something unprofitable or troublesome; anything useless.

weed²

/wiːd/

verb
third-person singular simple present weeds, present participle weeding, simple past and past participle weeded
1. To remove unwanted vegetation from a cultivated area (especially grass).
2. (figurative) To pilfer the best items from a collection.
  Quotations
  She now regretted much having had the case taken to the duke's, for surely it might have been weeded to very good purpose, and no one the wiser.
  1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXXVIII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 183
3. (library science) To systematically remove materials from a library collection based on a set of criteria.
  Quotations
  Librarians overwhelmingly believe that weeding increases use of books and patron satisfaction.
  2003, Juris Dilevko, Lisa Gottlieb, “Weed to achieve: a fundamental part of the public library mission?”, in Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services, volume 27, number 1, page 73

weed³

/wiːd/

noun
plural weeds
1. (archaic) A garment or piece of clothing.
  Quotations
  Lie here ye weedes that I diſdaine to weare,This compleat armor, and this curtle-axeAre adiuncts more beſeeming Tamburlaine.
  c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, (please specify the page)
  Prince [Don Pedro] Come let vs hence, and put on other weedes, / And then to Leonatoes we will goe. / Claudio And Hymen now with luckier iſſue ſpeeds, / Then this for whom we rendred vp this woe.Than this for whom we rend'red up this woe!
  1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, [Act V, scene iii]
  Shee, in a watchet vveed, with manie a curious waue, / VVhich as a princelie gift great Amphitrite gaue; […]
  1612, Michael Drayton, “The Fift Song”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes; I. Browne; I. Helme; I. Busbie, published 1613, page 75
  These two dignified persons were followed by their respective attendants, and at a more humble distance by their guide, whose figure had nothing more remarkable than it derived from the usual weeds of a pilgrim.
  1820, Walter Scott, chapter IV, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], page 65
  In words, like weeds, I’ll wrap me o’er,⁠Like coarsest clothes against the cold:⁠But that large grief which these enfoldIs given in outline and no more.
  1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], canto V
2. (archaic) Clothing collectively; clothes, dress.
  Quotations
  His mother o'er her barm-cloth wide / Gazed forward somewhat timidly / The new-comer's bright weed to see.
  1870, William Morris, “September: The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon”, in The Earthly Paradise: A Poem, part III, London: F[rederick] S[tartridge] Ellis, […], page 80
3. (archaic) An article of dress worn in token of grief; a mourning garment or badge.
4. (archaic) Especially in the plural as widow's weeds: (female) mourning apparel.
  Quotations
  O Sir, if we could but see the shape of our deare Mother England, as poets are wont to give a personal form to what they please, how would she appeare, think ye, but in a mourning weed, with ashes upon her head, and tears abundantly flowing from her eyes, to behold so many of her children expos'd at once, and thrust from things of dearest necessity, because their conscience could not assent to things which the Bishops thought indifferent.
  1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, 2nd book
  Poor Girl! put on thy stifling widow’s weed, / And ’scape at once from Hope’s accursed bands; […]
  1820, John Keats, “Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil. A Story from Boccaccio.”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], stanza XXIX, page 63

weed⁴

/wiːd/

noun
plural weeds
1. (Scotland) A sudden illness or relapse, often attended with fever, which befalls those who are about to give birth, are giving birth, or have recently given birth or miscarried or aborted.
  Quotations
  The patient […] aborted between the second and third month; […] felt herself so well on the second day after, that she went to the washing-green; and, on her return home in the evening, was seized with a violent rigor, which, by herself and those around her, was considered as the forerunner of a weed.
  1822, William Campbell, “Observations on the Disease usually termed Puerperal Fever, with Cases”, in The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, volume 18
2. (Scotland) Lymphangitis in a horse.

weed⁵

/wiːd/

verb
1. simple past and past participle of wee

Definition of "weed"

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