weedy

adj

1. 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 […]”

   “See, from the weedy earth a rivulet break And purl along the untrodden wilderness;”

2. Of, relating to or resembling weeds.

   “The wild rice has a peculiar weedy, smoky flavor, but if properly cooked is very delicious.”

   “A faint weedy smell came up from the river […]”

   “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.”

3. Consisting of weeds.

   “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.”

   “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.”

4. 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”

   “[…] and so your soyle being drayned and kept dry, all those wéedy kindes of grasse will soone perish.”

5. (figuratively)Small and weak.

   “a weedy lad”

   “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 […]”

   “We were about the same age. He was weedy, nearly a head taller than I, but fifty pounds lighter.”

6. (Ireland, UK, figuratively, informal)Lacking power or effectiveness.

   “a weedy excuse”

   “a weedy attempt”

   “a weedy motor”

   “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.”