weed

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A wild plant growing where it is not wanted, especially among crops or in a garden.

   I spent the morning pulling weeds out of the flower bed.

2. 2
   verb

   To remove unwanted wild plants from a garden or field.

   She weeded the vegetable patch before planting the seeds.

3. 3
   verb

   To remove people or things that are not wanted from a group (usually with 'out').

   The first interview is used to weed out the weakest applicants.

Common collocations

• pickerel weed Noun + noun

From Scots weid, weed. The longer form weidinonfa, wytenonfa (Old Scots wedonynpha) is attested since the 1500s. Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language analyses the longer form as a compound meaning "onfa(ll) of a weed", whereas the Scottish National Dictionary/DSL considers the short form a derivative of the longer form, and derives its first element from Old English wēdan (“to be mad or delirious”), from wōd (“mad, enraged”).

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images