Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of weed.
  • verb Third-person singular simple present indicative form of weed.
  • noun obsolete Clothes.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a black garment (dress) worn by a widow as a sign of mourning

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Inflected form of weed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English wæd, wæde.

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Examples

  • Perhaps, if we could penetrate Nature's secrets, we should find that what we call weeds are more essential to the well-being of the world than the most precious fruit or grain.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 108, October, 1866 Various

  • It is certainly a true one, for most of the plants which we call weeds grow quickly and well wherever they are allowed to remain.

    Wildflowers of the Farm Arthur Owens Cooke

  • "Perhaps if we could penetrate Nature's secrets we should find that what we call weeds are more essential to the well-being of the world than the most precious fruit or grain."

    The Community Cook Book Anonymous

  • For the place of the weeds is among stones, where the gardener wishes no plants.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • It was strange to me at first to see how often she introduced those homelier wild-flowers which we call weeds, -- for it seemed there was none of them too humble for her to love, and none too little cared for by Nature to be without its beauty for her artist eye and pencil.

    Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • It was strange to me at first to see how often she introduced those homelier wild-flowers which we call weeds, -- for it seemed there was none of them too humble for her to love, and none too little cared for by Nature to be without its beauty for her artist eye and pencil.

    The Professor at the Breakfast-Table Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • Perhaps, if we could penetrate Nature's secrets, we should find that what we call weeds are more essential to the well-being of the world than the most precious fruit or grain.

    Passages from the American Notebooks, Volume 2. Nathaniel Hawthorne 1834

  • I've got to go with the scum frog for stuff in weeds and other stuff and probably a buzzbait for all other purposes.

    What is your favorite topwater lure for bass? 2009

  • I've got to go with the scum frog for stuff in weeds and other stuff and probably a buzzbait for all other purposes.

    What is your favorite topwater lure for bass? 2009

  • One way to get rid of weeds is to go out in or after a heavy rain and pull them when the ground is soft (even softer than having been manually watered in advance).

    sarcler - French Word-A-Day 2010

Comments

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  • And they who to be sure of Paradise

    Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,

    Or in Franciscan think to pass disguis'd ...

    Milton, Paradise Lost III

    December 19, 2006

  • I like its archaic synonym for 'livery', as cited above.

    February 22, 2007