# weedy
## English
### Etymology

From weed +‎ -y.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈwiːdi/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -iːdi

### Adjective

weedy (comparative weedier, superlative weediest)
* Abounding with weeds.
    weedy grounds
    a weedy garden
    weedy corn
** 1577, Barnabe Googe (translator), The Foure Bookes of Husbandry, collected by M. Conradus Heresbachius, London: Richard Watkins, Book 1, p. 27,
    Wheate delighteth in a leuell, riche, warme, and a drye ground: a shaddowy, weedy, and a hilly ground, it loueth not […]
** 1871, William Cullen Bryant, “The Path”, in Poems‎, New York: Appleton, page 354:See, from the weedy earth a rivulet break And purl along the untrodden wilderness;
* Of, relating to or resembling weeds.
    Synonym: weedlike
** 1894, Catharine Parr Traill, “Our Native Grasses”, in Pearls and Pebbles‎, London: Sampson Low, Marston, page 214:The wild rice has a peculiar weedy, smoky flavor, but if properly cooked is very delicious.
** 1925, Aldous Huxley, Those Barren Leaves‎, Part 2, Chapter 5:A faint weedy smell came up from the river […]
** 1940, Raymond Chandler, chapter 5, in Farewell, My Lovely‎:She had weedy hair of that vague color which is neither brown nor blond, that hasn't enough life in it to be ginger, and isn't clean enough to be gray.
* Consisting of weeds.
** c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii]:There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds Clamb’ring to hang, an envious sliver broke, When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook.
** 1854, Henry David Thoreau, “The Bean-Field”, in Walden‎, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, page 175:Daily the beans saw me come to their rescue armed with a hoe, and thin the ranks of their enemies, filling up the trenches with weedy dead.
** 1917, James Joyce, “Flood” in Poetry, Volume 10, April-September, 1917, p. 73,
    A waste of waters ruthlessly
    Sways and uplifts its weedy mane,
    Where brooding day stares down upon the sea
    In dull disdain.
* (botany) Characteristic of a plant that grows rapidly and spreads invasively, and which grows opportunistically in cracks of sidewalks and disturbed areas.
    a weedy species
    a weedy vine
** 1614, Gervase Markham, The Second Booke of the English Husbandman‎, London: John Browne, Part 2, Chapter 7, pp. 84-85:[…] and so your soyle being drayned and kept dry, all those wéedy kindes of grasse will soone perish.
* (figurative, of a person or animal) Small and weak.
    Synonyms: scraggy, ungainly; see also Thesaurus:scrawny
    a weedy lad
** 1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, chapter 8, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1866, →OCLC:I’ll bring Grace, who is looking rather pale and weedy; growing too fast, I’m afraid.
** 1924, Edith Wharton, The Spark (The Sixties), Chapter 2, in Old New York, New York: 1981, p. 146,
    Byrne was hurling himself across the field, crouched on the neck of his somewhat weedy mount […]
** 1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 2, in Red Harvest‎:We were about the same age. He was weedy, nearly a head taller than I, but fifty pounds lighter.
* (figurative, UK, Ireland, informal) Lacking power or effectiveness.
    Synonyms: feeble; see also Thesaurus:weak
    a weedy excuse
    a weedy attempt
    a weedy motor
** 2010 June 22, Juliet Woods, “We all know fast food is bad for us”, in The Telegraph:Everything in moderation is a bit of a weedy call to arms, but as a rule for living it’s hard to beat.
** 2016, Orla Kiely, quoted in “Designs for life from Orla Kiely,” Irish Independent, 3 April, 2016,
    We wanted to make sure that our jewellery made a statement, that it wasn't wimpy or weedy.

#### Derived terms

* weedily
* weediness
* weedy hawksbeard
* weedy sea dragon

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* Dewey