[f. WEAK a. + -NESS.]
1. The quality or condition of being weak, in any sense of the adj.; deficiency of strength, power or force.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 27054. Botes thre, Quar-wit þat we mai strenghed be. Þe first for waikenes of vr fa Þat qua-sum will mai were him fra. Ibid., 28932. [Of alms-giving] ‘Weiknes’ sal þou lok for mede, For þou man agh all helpe in nede, Þe waikest and þe mast vn-fere.
1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 9026. Alle þe strenthe of Sampson þat was pereles, War noght tald þare bot wayknes.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3323. Syn weikenes of wemen may not wele stryve, Ne haue no myght tawardes men maistries to fend.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 520/2. Weykenesse, of hert, vecordia, pusillanimitas.
1525. Grete Herbal, clxxiii. (1529), L j. Agaynst vomyte caused of weykenesse of the vertue retentyfe, take [etc.].
1538. Starkey, England, 43. Wych thyng [sc. retirement from the world] surely ys not amys downe of them wych perceyue theyr owne imbecyllyte and wekenes.
1595. Shaks., John, V. iii. 17. To my litter straight, Weaknesse possesseth me, and I am faint. Ibid. (1601), Jul. C., IV. iii. 276. I thinke it is the weakenesse of mine eyes That shapes this monstrous Apparition.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., III. xxxvii. 236. And so make the weaknesse of his voice seem to proceed … from distance of place.
1678. Lady Chaworth, in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 45. Lady Portsmouth [is] going to Bourbon as soone as her weaknesse will permitt.
1686. Tillotson, Serm. at White-Hall (1 Cor. iii. 15) 19. I shall shew the weakness of the principle upon which this argument relies.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 259. The weakness of the Sun in that Season.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1768), VII. 33. They depend upon the indulgent weakness of their Parents tempers.
1769. Junius Lett., xvi. 69. The man who is conscious of the weakness of his cause is interested in concealing it.
1774. [W. Mitford], Ess. Harmony Lang., 153. The expression of the 829 line is much heightened by the extreme weakness of the accent in the first foot [etc.].
1781. Burns, Let. W. Burnes, 27 Dec. The weakness of my nerves.
1782. Jrnl. Yng. Lady of Virginia (1871), 22. Nancy was much better than I expected to find her. Weakness is her only complaint.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), VI. 162. Where … a testator … was incapable of disposing of his lands from any weakness of mind.
1821. Lamb, Elia, Witches, Wks. 1908, I. 554. Credulity is the man’s weakness, but the child’s strength.
1838. Prescott, Ferd. & Is., II. xxiii. III. 425. The independence of Navarre had hitherto been maintained less through its own strength than the weakness of its neighbours.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., I. xxiii. 301. He was startled by the growing weakness of the ice.
1861. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 33–4. The weakness of Henry III would not suffer him to commit himself heartily to a Ghibelline policy.
1869. Tanner, Clin. Med. (ed. 2), 20. Dementia…. This form of insanity is often seen in those who in early life exhibit weakness of will, or of moral self-control.
1875. Economist, 23 Jan., 95/2. The special causes of weakness affecting the markets have … been greatly influential here.
1884. Law Times Rep., L. 118/2. Rule 15 … is a rule meant to make a litigant expose the weakness of his case.
1920. Conquest, Nov., 7/2. The mountains … are lines of weakness caused by the crumpling of the earth’s crust.
2. In particularized uses. a. A weak point, a circumstance of disadvantage.
1597. Bacon, Ess., Of Negotiating (Arb.), 92. If you would worke any man, you must either know his nature, and fashions and so leade him,… or his weakenesses or disaduantages, and so awe him.
1627. Donne, Serm., lxxxi. (1649), II. 9. Here, it is a faire portion of that Angelicall happinesse, if you be alwaies ready to support, and supply one another in any such occasionall weaknesses.
1914. ‘Ian Hay,’ Knt. on Wheels, xix. The brakes of the Britannia cars have always been their weakness.
1920. W. S. Purchon, in Discovery, April, 114/1. Any weakness there was in our pre-war small house design was a tendency to fussiness.
b. An infirmity of character, a failing.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. V. xii. 148. I shall heartily thank you … if you tell me of my weaknesses.
1671. Milton, Samson, 773. Dalila. First granting, as I do, it was a weakness In me, but incident to all our sex, Curiosity.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 255, ¶ 10. This very Thirst after Fame … is it self looked upon as a Weakness in the greatest Characters.
1748. Chesterf., Lett. to Son, 29 Oct. Not to seem to perceive the little weaknesses, and the idle but innocent affectations of the company.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xiv. (1782), I. 525. The laws of Constantine against rapes were dictated with very little indulgence for the most amiable weaknesses of human nature.
1797. Jane Austen, Sense & Sensib., xlix. His heart was now open to Elinor, all its weaknesses, all its errors confessed.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxv. V. 256. Many who could not help smiling at Burnet’s weaknesses did justice to his abilities and virtues.
† c. A weakened condition of body; an attack of faintness. Obs.
1602. Shaks., Ham., II. ii. 148. He … Fell into a Sadnesse,… thence into a Weaknesse.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 236. I was all the day troubled with a weaknesse of bodie.
1749. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. i. § 1. 51. The Numbness, and paralytic Weaknesses, which frequently succeed after Opiates.
1756. Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitl. Club), 203. And ever since, I am given to violent passions and weaknesses in my head.
3. An unreasonable or self-indulgent liking or inclination for (a person or thing).
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 442, ¶ 1. I must own my Weakness for Glory is such, that if I consulted that only, I might [etc.].
1746. Chesterf., Lett. to Son, 4 Oct. I have no womanish weakness for your person.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, III. xi. He hath every great and generous quality, with perhaps a weakness for the sex which belongs to his family.
1869. A. Macdonald, Love, Law & Theol., x. 172. I think she would like to have Porter, but he doesn’t seem to see that she has a weakness for him.
1895. H. A. Kennedy, in 19th Cent., Aug., 330. I own to a weakness for a play that, without any flourish of pretence, does very distinctly amuse me.
1913. Jrnl. Friends’ Hist. Soc., Jan., 4. He had a weakness for getting on his feet several times in the course of one First-day morning.
b. quasi-concr. Something for which one has an unreasonable liking.
1822. Byron, Vis. Judgm., xxxix. Nor wine nor lust Were of his weaknesses.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, iv. You have been exciting yourself too much—talking perhaps, for it is your weakness. Ibid. (1853), Bleak Ho., xx. It’s the fashionable way; and fashion and whiskers have been my weaknesses, and I don’t care who knows it.
