weed
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /wiːd/
homophone: we'd
homophone: ouid
rhymes: -iːd
Forms: form: weeds
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: Lie here ye weedes that I diſdaine to weare,
This compleat armor, and this curtle-axe
Are adiuncts more beſeeming Tamburlaine.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
text: 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!
ref: 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, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
text: Shee, in a watchet vveed, with manie a curious waue, / VVhich as a princelie gift great Amphitrite gaue; […]
ref: 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: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC, page 75:
text: 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.
ref: 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter IV, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 65:
text: In words, like weeds, I’ll wrap me o’er,
⁠Like coarsest clothes against the cold:
⁠But that large grief which these enfold
Is given in outline and no more.
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto V”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A garment or piece of clothing.
examples: text: His mother o'er her barm-cloth wide / Gazed forward somewhat timidly / The new-comer's bright weed to see.
ref: 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, […], →OCLC, page 80:
glosses: Clothing collectively; clothes, dress.
examples: text: He wore a weed on his hat.
glosses: An article of dress worn in token of grief; a mourning garment or badge.
examples: text: […] he was beat and retreated back to his old encampment with his weed on his hat dragging on the ground, with the loss of more than nineteen hundred men; […]
ref: 1888, Duane Hamilton Hurd, History of Essex County, Massachusetts, page 1183:
glosses: A hatband.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1641 May, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavses that hitherto have Hindred it. […], [London]: […] Thomas Vnderhill, →OCLC; republished in Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC, page 57:
text: Poor Girl! put on thy stifling widow’s weed, / And ’scape at once from Hope’s accursed bands; […]
ref: 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, […], →OCLC, stanza XXIX, page 63:
glosses: Especially in the plural as widow's weeds: (female) mourning apparel.