or -sister, subs. phr. (religious cant).—An unreliable man (or woman). Cf. also (colloquial) WEAKLING (a diminutive), which, as adj. = puny, weak; WEAK-KNEED = uncertain, vacillating, purposeless.
1595. SHAKESPEARE, 3 Henry VI., v. 1. 37.
| War. Thou art no Atlas for so great a weight: | |
| And, WEAKLING, Warwick takes his gift again. |
1740. T. NORTH, Plutarch, 700. He was but WEAKLING and very tender.
1847. C. BRONTË, Jane Eyre, xxxiv. Jane is not such a WEAKLING as you would make her.
1861. New York Tribune, 26 Dec., 4. 3. The rebels assert that the Union has no friends at the South. The assertion is false: there are White Unionists there, but they are WEAK SISTERS—overawed, terrorized, silenced.
1885. The Field, 4 April. This was a feat not to be attempted by a WEAKLING.
1888. St. James’s Gazette, 14 Jan. Such another WEAK-KNEED effort … will lead to no good result.
1888. G. P. LATHROP, Christening, in Harper’s Magazine, lxxvi. March, 570. This WEAKLING cry of children.
