weed.
Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing.
Meaning & usage
Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing.
If it isn't in a straight line or marked with a label, it's a weed.
Ellipsis of duckweed.
Underbrush; low shrubs.
A drug or the like made from the leaves or flowers of a plant. Cannabis.
A drug or the like made from the leaves or flowers of a plant. Tobacco.
A drug or the like made from the leaves or flowers of a plant. A cigar.
A weak horse, which is therefore unfit to breed from.
A puny person; one who has little physical strength.
Something unprofitable or troublesome; anything useless.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *weud Old English wēod Middle English weed English weed From Middle English weed, weod, from Old English wēod (“weed”), from Proto-West Germanic *weud (“weed”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Jood (“weed”), West Frisian wjûd (“weed”), Dutch wied (“unwanted plant, weed”), German Low German Weed (“weed”), Old High German wiota (“fern”). See also woad.
To remove unwanted vegetation from a cultivated area (especially grass).
I weeded my flower bed.
To pilfer the best items from a collection.
To systematically remove materials from a library collection based on a set of criteria.
We usually weed romance novels that haven't circulated in over a year.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English weeden, weden, from Old English wēodian (“to weed”), from Proto-Germanic *weudōną (“to uproot, weed”). Cognate with West Frisian wjûde, wjudde (“to weed”), Dutch wieden (“to weed”), German Low German weden (“to weed”).
A garment or piece of clothing.
Clothing collectively; clothes, dress.
An article of dress worn in token of grief; a mourning garment or badge.
He wore a weed on his hat.
A hatband.
Especially in the plural as widow's weeds: (female) mourning apparel.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English wede, from Old English wǣd (“dress, attire, clothing, garment”), from Proto-Germanic *wēdiz, from which also wad, wadmal. Cognate with Dutch lijnwaad, Dutch gewaad, German Wat.
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.
Lymphangitis in a horse.
Where this word comes from
From Scots weid, weed. The longer form weidinonfa, wytenonfa (Old Scots wedonynpha) is attested since the 1500s. Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language analyses the longer form as a compound meaning "onfa(ll) of a weed", whereas the Scottish National Dictionary/DSL considers the short form a derivative of the longer form, and derives its first element from Old English wēdan (“to be mad or delirious”), from wōd (“mad, enraged”).
simple past and past participle of wee
Where this word comes from
From the verb wee.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.