Forms: 1 wéod, wíod, 3 wied, (wod), 3–4 wed, weod, (4 pl. weoden), 4–6 wede, 4 wyed, (5 ? wade), 5–6 Sc. weid, 6 wyde, Sc. weyd, 6–7 wide, 5–7 weede, 5– weed. [OE. wéod neut. = OS. wiod neut., mod. LG. wêd, Flem. dial. wied, EFris. wiud; the ulterior etymology is unknown.]
1. A herbaceous plant not valued for use or beauty, growing wild and rank, and regarded as cumbering the ground or hindering the growth of superior vegetation.
c. 888. Ælfred, Boeth., xxiii. Swa hwa swa wille sawan westmbære land, atio ærest of … ealle þa weod þe he ʓesio þæt þam æcerum deriʓen.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 129. For þi is þis westren forgrouwen mid brimbles and mid þornes and mid iuele wiedes.
c. 1290. St. Mary of Egypt, 108, in S. Eng. Leg., 264. Heo ne et no mannische mete bote weodes and wilde more.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XIII. 224. On fat londe and fal of donge foulest wedes groweth.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 519/2. Weed, or wyyld herbe, aborigo.
1480. Coventry Leet Bk., 445. [They] stoppen the dyches with þe wedes of their gardeyns & other swepyng of their houses.
1532. Hervet, Xenoph. Househ., 49 b. The grounde must be clene kept and deliuered from wides.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 946. They bid thee crop a weed, thou pluckst a flower.
a. 1660. Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.), I. 128. To keep a field from over growinge with wides.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., 87. Whilest they [sc. Hedges] are yet young, they are to be constantly weeded, least the Weeds prevent the thick spreading of the Hedge at the bottom.
1726. J. Laurence, New Syst. Agric., 451. Couch-Grass is a pernicious Weed, keeping the Land hollow and loose.
1781. Cowper, Expost., 214. But grace abus’d brings forth the foulest deeds, As richest soil the most luxuriant weeds.
1815. Wordsw., White Doe, vii. 1896. Plate of monumental brass, Dim-gleaming among weeds and grass.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xxii. In the garden there was not a weed to be seen.
1885. Miss Braddon, Wyllard’s Weird, I. i. 32. The soil teemed with flowers. There was no room left for a weed.
b. A plant that grows wild in fresh or salt water. Cf. ORE-WEED, PONDWEED, RIVER-WEED, SEAWEED, WATER-WEED.
1538. Elyot, Dict. Alga, reyte, or wedes of the see.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. ii. 109. As Weeds before A Vessell vnder sayle, so men obey’d, And fell below his Stem.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 146. Both Ilands [Jersey and Guernesey] burne a weede of the Sea or Sea coales brought out of England.
1653. Walton, Angler, ix. 177. This fish … loves … to live … in standing waters, where mud and the worst of weeds abound.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., 65, marg. Of Sea-weeds, and Weeds in Rivers.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VIII. 177. They are bred from eggs, which are laid upon the weeds along the sea-shore.
1825. Sir H. Davy, in Phil. Trans., CXV. 329. Weeds and shell fish.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, vi. The weeds were new to me—some green, some brown and long, and some with little bladders that crackled between my fingers.
c. collect. sing.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 245. [The ant] gaddreð ilkines sed boðen of wude and of wed.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 593. Among þe wede [Cott. wode], among þe netle.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1140. Insted o þin oþer sede, Ne sal þe groue bot thorne and wede.
1434. Maldon (Essex) Court Rolls, Bundle 20. no. 1. Ricardus Kynge jactat le weede gardini sui in Skykkis lane.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 54. The grasse that groweth vppon falowes is not good for shepe; for there is moche of it wede.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., IV. vii. 4. When suddenly behind her backe she heard One rushing forth out of the thickest weed.
1791–3. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 252. The coat of weed, which was likely to fix upon it during the winter.
1832. Tennyson, Œnone, 197. A wild and wanton pard … Crouch’d fawning in the weed.
1865. Mrs. L. L. Clarke, Common Seaweeds, i. 18. They [needles] will be extremely useful in laying out the weed.
d. Prov. † The weed overgroweth the corn. Ill weeds grow apace.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VII. viii. 224. To see suche a ladde to matche suche a knyghte as the wede ouer grewe the corne.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov., I. x. (1867), 22. Ill weede growth fast … wherby the corne is lorne. For surely the weede ouergroweth the corne.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., II. iv. 13. Small Herbes haue grace, great Weeds do grow apace.
1616. T. Draxe, Bibl. Scholast., 216. An ill weede groweth apace.
a. 1692. Pollexfen, Disc. Trade (1697), 100. As ill Weeds grow apace, so these Manufactured Goods from India.
1721. J. Kelly, Sc. Prov., 319. The Weeds o’er grow the Corn, the bad are the most numerous.
e. Used, with defining word, to form the names of wild plants, as BINDWEED, COTTONWEED, CUDWEED, DUCKWEED, DYER’S WEED, GREENWEED, HOGWEED, hungerweed (HUNGER sb. 4 e), IRONWEED, KNAPWEED, KNOTWEED, matweed (MAT sb.1 8), MILKWEED, MUGWEED, NECKWEED, RAGWEED, yellow-weed (YELLOW C. 1).
2. gen. Any herb or small plant. Chiefly poet.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. vi. 30. Ʒif æceres weod [Vulg. fænum agri] God swa scryt,… þam mycle ma he scryt eow.
13[?]. K. Alis., 796. Mury time is the weod to sere [Laud MS. is wede sere]; The corn riputh in the ere.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. i. 52. And then with words, and weedes, of wondrous might, On them she workes her will to vses bad.
1614. Sylvester, Bethulia’s Rescue, 56. The Sun-burnt Reaper had yet scarcely rid The ridged Acres of their richest Weed.
1807–8. W. Irving, Salmag. (1824), 365. These evils have all come upon you through tea! Cursed weed.
1859. Tennyson, Vivien, 321. I once was looking for a magic weed.
b. Applied to a shrub or tree; esp. to a large tree, on account of its abundance in a district.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. 165. Cotton-trees … are the biggest Trees, or perhaps Weeds rather, in the West Indies.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 604. The Rasberry Tree … is rather a Weed than a Tree, never living two Years together above ground.
1860. W. White, Wrekin, xi. 99. There is no lack of wood or of ‘Herefordshire weeds,’ as oaks are called.
1885. Mozley, Remin., II. 206. The ash is the weed of the county [Northants].
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 127. The elm, which from its abundance in the country, is still known as the ‘Warwickshire weed.’
3. spec. Tobacco.
1606. Warner, Alb. Eng., XIV. xci. (1612), 369. An Indian weede, That feum’d away more wealth than would a many thousands feed.
1609. Dekker, Guls Horne-bk., iv. 19. Where, if you cannot reade, exercise your smoake, and inquire who has writ against this diuine weede.
1687. Montague & Prior, Hind & P. Transv., 17.
| Your Pipe’s so foul, that I disdain to smoak; | |
| And the Weed worse than e’re Tom. I——s took. |
1781. Cowper, Conversat., 251. Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys.
1797. Sporting Mag., X. 58. And chaunt the song, and pull the weed.
1841. Lytton, Nt. & Morn., I. vi. He knocked the weed from his pipe.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 153. Tobacco vertigo and the other nervous consequences of the weed resemble those of neurasthenia.
b. A cigar or cheroot. colloq.
1847. Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, Introd. (1879), 9. Pulling a melancholy looking weed from the lining of his hat.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xli. We … kept up with brandy and soda-water and weeds till four.
1885. C. Lowe, Bismarck, I. 388, note. The strategist carefully selected the best weed in the Chancellor’s case.
4. fig. An unprofitable, troublesome or noxious growth. (Formerly often applied to persons.)
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 4322. Latt no wykkyde wede waxe, ne wrythe one this erthe.
1422. Yonge, trans. Secreta Secret., 164. So rysyth of the roote of an … appert traytoure, othyre rebellis, many wickid wedis sone growynge, that al trewe men in londe Sore greuyth.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 349. And if … any persons … entended the contrary, there must also be deuised howe such euill wedes may be destroyed.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, 7. Justices, to disburden their shire of corrupt weeds, as they tearme it, do picke out the scumme of their countrie for the warres.
1604. Shaks., Oth., IV. ii. 67. Oh thou weed: Who art so louely faire, and smell’st so sweete, That the Sense akes at thee, Would thou had’st neuer bin borne.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 72. An immoderate ambition … is a weed (if it be a weed) apt to grow in the best soils.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 183, ¶ 11. Envy is, indeed, a stubborn weed of the mind, and seldom yields to the culture of philosophy.
1850. Grote, Greece, II. lxviii. (1862), VI. 156. Intolerance is the natural weed of the human bosom, though its growth or development may be counteracted by liberalizing causes.
1915. F. S. Oliver, Ordeal by Battle, II v. 146. Militarism is a tough weed to kill.
5. slang. (Cf. WEEDY a.1 4.) a. A poor, leggy, loosely built horse.
In Shaks., Meas for M., I. iii. 20 the word has been explained to mean ‘an ill-conditioned horse.’ Theobald’s correction, ‘steeds,’ may be right.
1845. Stocqueler, Handbk. Brit. India (1854), 181. The necessity … for constant renewal of the blood … without which the breed degenerates into weeds.
1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, ii. He bore the same relation to a man of fashion as a ‘weed’ does to a ‘winner of the Derby.’
1861. Farmer’s Mag., LV. 1/2. A leggy weed that can go the fastest for half a mile or so over the flat.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Squatter’s Dream, iii. 28. Here she pointed to her steed, a small violent weed.
b. A lank delicate person without muscle or stamina.
1869. A. L. Smith, in Morgan, Univ. Oars (1873), 231. I know men who, from being weeds, have grown into strong and healthy men on the river.
† 6. Mining. (See quot. 1710.) Obs.
1671. Phil. Trans., VI. 2102. (Tin), So [we] continue sinking from cast to cast … till we find either the Load to grow small, or degenerate into some sort of weed … as Mundick, or Maxy Daze,… Iremould. Ibid., 2105. The Load is usually in an hard … Countrey, made up of metal, spars and other weeds.
1710. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., II. Weed, in the Miners Language is the Degeneracy of a Load or Vein of fine Metal, into an useless Marchasite.
7. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib., as weed-bed, -bush, -case, -field, -fish, -nosegay, -root, -seed. Also WEED-HOOK.
1664. Phil. Trans., I. 13. They went into the Weed-beds of the Gulf of Florida.
a. 1682. Sir T. Browne, Norf. Fishes, Wks. 1835, IV. 330. A weed-fish, somewhat like a haddock.
1782. Mrs. Delany, Autob. (1861), I. 368. My amusement was running after butterflies and gathering weed nosegays.
1791. W. H. Marshall, W. Eng. (1796), II. 279. The weed seeds having spent themselves … the dressing will be turned in.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 993. The weeds and weed-roots will then be seen upon the surface.
1848. Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, xlv. 395. Metal weed-cases.
1851. Kingsley, Yeast, x. Even if marriage was but one weed-field of temptations, as these miserable pedants say.
1899. Contemp. Rev., Dec., 884. One of those curious round weed-bushes known as ‘tumble weeds.’
1915. H. G. Hutchinson, in Blackw. Mag., Aug., 199/1. He would make the rod bend like a bow and quiver as he ran out the line, always making for the weed-bed at the bottom.
b. instrumental, as weed-choked, -entwined, -fringed, -grown, -hidden, -hung adjs.
1799. Campbell, Pleas. Hope, II. 201. O’er each Runic altar, weed-entwined.
1818. Keats, Endym., I. 65. Weed-hidden roots.
1856. Lever, Martins of Cro’ M., i. Weed-grown walks.
1857. Gosse, Omphalos, viii. 216. This weed-fringed tide-pool.
1870. H. Macmillan, True Vine, v. (1872), 188. The idleness of another is seen in the meagre, weed-choked produce of his neglected fields.
1897. Kipling, Captains Courageous, iii. 57. The weed-hung flukes of the little anchor.
c. objective, as weed-cutter, -grubber; weed-cutting vbl. sb.; also weed-like adj.
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. ii. 32. I save the Expence of the Weed-grubbers.
1729. Savage, Wanderer, II. 415. Upsprung, such weed-like Coarseness it betrays, Flocks on th’ abandon’d Blade permissive graze.
1863. Hawthorne, Old Home, Consular Exp., I. 16. The weedlike decay and growth of our localities.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 12 May, 3/2. An endeavour is being made on the Test to have all weed-cutting completed by the middle of May. Ibid. (1903), 2 Oct., 2/1. Patent weed-cutters, worked by machinery.
d. † weed-ash, ? soda-ash (which is made from sea-weed); weed-killer, a preparation of arsenic used for killing weeds.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. VII. lxxxviii. 407. Also pot-ash, weed-ash, and pearl-ash.
1890. Daily News, 6 Sept., 2/7. In mistake [he] took up a bottle of weed killer, some of which he drank.
