weed

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   clear of weeds

   weed the garden

2. 2
   noun

   Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing.

   If it isn't in a straight line or marked with a label, it's a weed.

3. 3
   noun

   Underbrush; low shrubs.

   one rushing forth out of the thickest weed

4. 4
   noun

   A drug or the like made from the leaves of a plant.

   And I predict you will laugh harder than ever. I’m not saying I’m any funnier. I’m saying weed is now legal in D.C.

5. 5
   verb

   To remove unwanted vegetation from a cultivated area (especially grass).

   I weeded my flower bed.

6. 6
   verb

   To pilfer the best items from a collection.

   She now regretted much having had the case taken to the duke's, for surely it might have been weeded to very good purpose, and no one the wiser.

7. 7
   verb

   To systematically remove materials from a library collection based on a set of criteria.

   We usually weed romance novels that haven't circulated in over a year.

8. 8
   noun

   A garment or piece of clothing.

   Lie here ye weedes that I diſdaine to weare, This compleat armor, and this curtle-axe Are adiuncts more beſeeming Tamburlaine.

Etymology

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”).