Weakness
['wiːknɪs] or ['wiknəs]
Definition
(noun.) the property of lacking physical or mental strength; liability to failure under pressure or stress or strain; 'his weakness increased as he became older'; 'the weakness of the span was overlooked until it collapsed'.
(noun.) a penchant for something even though it might not be good for you; 'he has a weakness for chocolate'.
(noun.) the condition of being financially weak; 'the weakness of the dollar against the yen'.
Edited by Constantine--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The quality or state of being weak; want of strength or firmness; lack of vigor; want of resolution or of moral strength; feebleness.
(n.) That which is a mark of lack of strength or resolution; a fault; a defect.
Edited by Horace
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Debility, feebleness, enervation, dilution, impairment, languor, imbecility,infirmity, decrepitude, frailty, faintness, inconclusiveness, worthlessness,want
ANT:Strength, power, nerve, spirit, renovation, vigor, lustiness, tone, cogency,activity, conclusiveness, efficiency, value, abundance
Typed by Aileen
Unserious Contents or Definition
n.pl. Certain primal powers of Tyrant Woman wherewith she holds dominion over the male of her species binding him to the service of her will and paralyzing his rebellious energies.
Checker: Lola
Examples
- Against artillery of the present day the land forts and walls would prove elements of weakness rather than strength. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- I had always felt my weakness, in comparison with her constancy and fortitude; and now I felt it more and more. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- It is the Rock of Ages I ask you to lean on: do not doubt but it will bear the weight of your human weakness. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- It's a weakness to be so affectionate, but I can't help it. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- The book treats of the weakness of human kind, and is in little esteem, except among the women and the vulgar. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- I could weep in the exquisite felicity of my heart and be as happy in my weakness as ever I had been in my strength. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- The want of them, on some occasions, may even be a proof of weakness and imbecillity. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- He was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow,--a sort of Hercules in strength, and also in weakness. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- If I betray weakness, you will know how to excuse me. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- My uncle will be full of horror, weakness, precipitation; and that is the only expedient which will suggest itself to him. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Lydgate's anger rose: he was prepared to be indulgent towards feminine weakness, but not towards feminine dictation. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Its weakness is the ease with which natural in the sense of normal is confused with the physical. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- He lives at Pentonwil when he's at home,' observed the driver coolly, 'but we seldom takes him home, on account of his weakness. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- I had no right to hear them, no right to answer them--they were the words that banished me, in the name of her sacred weakness, from the room. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- I am only in great misery at what I have done, and that, with the weakness, makes me seem mad. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- But it has been the study of my life to avoid those weaknesses which often expose a strong understanding to ridicule. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- Sir John had his share--perhaps rather a large share--of the more harmless and amiable of the weaknesses incidental to humanity. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- One of her weaknesses was a desire to move in 'our best society', without being quite sure what the best really was. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- It's the fashionable way; and fashion and whiskers have been my weaknesses, and I don't care who knows it, says Mr. Jobling. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Her duty is at his side; and luckily she seems always to have been blind to his private weaknesses. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- But my husband has his weaknesses, and he is so weak as to relent towards this Doctor. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- If I had not been too old for the amiable weaknesses of youth, I believe I should have blushed at the notion of facing him myself. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- As a general rule, Edison does not get genuinely angry at mistakes and other human weaknesses of his subordinates; at best he merely simulates anger. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- And priestly government had its own weaknesses as well as its peculiar deep-rooted strength. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- You charm me, Mortimer, with your reading of my weaknesses. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I have many weaknesses, but none greater. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- They take advantage of popular weaknesses. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- They are great weaknesses--Damme, sir, they are great. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- I have suppressed none of my many weaknesses on that subject, but have written them as faithfully as my memory has recalled them. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
Inputed by Gerard