| 释义 |
▪ I. weedy, a.1|ˈwiːdɪ|
[f. weed n.1 + -y1.]
1. Full of, abounding or overgrown with, weeds.
c1420Pallad. on Husb. Tab. 219 Lond, weet, wodi, wedi, or stony, to remedie. 1596Spenser F.Q. iv. x. 55 But I..Like warie Hynd within the weedie soyle, For no intreatie would forgoe so glorious spoyle. 1611Bible Jer. xlix. 21 The noise thereof was heard in the Red [marg. weedy] Sea. a1631Donne Lett. to Persons of Honour (1651) 50 A sullen weedy lake, where I could not have so much as exercise for my swimming. 1707Mortimer Husb. 100 If Wheat is weedy it must lie upon the Gravel. 1767A. Young Farmer's Lett. to People 261 Dividing the field in such a manner as to give each method a fair proportion of the weedy and clean parts. 1828Davy Salmonia 47 The fish here are large, and the river weedy, so you must take care of your fish and your tackle. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxxii, The waggon rolled up a weedy gravel-walk. 1914‘Ian Hay’ Knt. on Wheels xiv, The garden was weedy and the lawn unshaven.
fig.1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. Dec. 122, I haue Nought reaped but a weedye crop of care. 1628Prynne Brief Surv. Cozens 15 The infallibilitie of the Church of Rome, from whose weedie Garden, this Garland of Deuotion hath beene gathered. 1859Meredith R. Feverel xiii[x], A sad downfall if we forget what human nature, in its green weedy Spring, is composed of. 1892Daily Tel. 31 Aug. 5/4 [The library] of the Church House is still scrappy, weedy and incomplete.
2. Of the nature of or resembling a weed; made or consisting of weeds.
1602Shakes. Ham. iv. vii. 175 When downe the weedy Trophies, and her selfe, Fell in the weeping Brooke. 1610G. Fletcher Christ's Tri. i. l, Let..nettles, kixe, and all the weedie nation, With emptie elders grow, sad signes of desolation. 1733W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farm. 349 The Sheep..in quest of their weedy Food. 1753Dodsley Publ. Virtue i. ii. 94 His new machine; form'd to exterminate The weedy race. 1881Grant Allen Evolutionist at large 44 Thus the crowfoot, too, cannot blossom to any purpose below the water;..only those lucky individuals whose chance lot it was to grow a little taller and weedier than the rest, and so overtop the stream, have handed down their race to our time. 1885L'pool Daily Post 30 June 4/6 Grasping in their tired little hands the weedy spoils of the hedgerow.
fig.1819H. Busk Vestriad ii. 84 The brawny Tritons, with their weedy hair. 1835Waterworth Exam. Distinctive Princ. Protestantism 9 These weedy prejudices never will be torn up. 1874Burnand My Time xxvi. 238 A long-legged gentleman with weedy whiskers. 1888D. C. Murray Weaker Vessel xiv, Some of them are clever in a way; rooted fools by nature, who bear a weedy little blossom of wit, and suppose themselves to flower all over.
3. Having a taste or tang of weeds.
1867Trans. Illinois Agric. Soc. VI. 638 Weedy, flour made from wheat that has come in contact with a noxious weed imparting an unpleasant smell. 1892J. M. Walsh Tea 107 The liquor [of Neilgherry] is thin, muddy and rank or ‘weedy’ in flavour.
4. colloq. (Cf. weed n.1 5.)
a. Of animals, esp. horses and hounds: Lean, leggy, loose-bodied, and lacking in strength and mettle.
1800Sporting Mag. XV. 107 The poor, slight, weedy, spindle-shanked stock of brood mares. 1854Surtees Handley Cr. xxxviii. (1901) II. 15 He rode a weedy chestnut. 1865Morley Mod. Characteristics 11 A very shabby old brougham drawn by a pair of very weedy horses. 1877G. Stables Pract. Kennel Guide 37 Weedy a very expressive word, as applied to a dog who looks leggy, thin, badly-bred, and apparently going to seed. 1888‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms xi, We drafted out all the worst and weediest of the cattle.
b. Of persons: Unhealthily tall and thin; lanky and wanting physical vigour; also, weakly, of poor physique. Also without reference to physical qualities: feeble, half-hearted, weak; lacking firmness or strength.
1852Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour xxi, ‘Nice size, too,’ continued he,..‘plenty of substance..(puff)... Hate a weedy woman—fifteen two and a half—that's to say, five feet four, 's plenty of height for a woman’. a1865Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. viii, Grace..is looking rather pale and weedy. 1892Nation 21 Apr. 295/3 In order to fill the ranks large numbers of weedy men have been enlisted. 1922E. M. Forster Life to Come (1975) 73 The chief had developed into an affable and rather weedy Christian with a good knowledge of English. 1971Petticoat 24 July 4/3 I'm just too weedy, I don't threaten to expose them. 1982Barr & York Official Sloane Ranger Handbk. 122/1 At whatever grade, they are fearless (‘Be weedy in front of the wops?’).
c. Of things.
1950Chambers's Jrnl. Mar. 131/1 He must have conveyed this to her in one way or another, because soon afterwards she sent back his presents, and the weedy friendship which might have blossomed into a beautiful love was nipped in the bud.
5. Comb., as weedy-brown, weedy-haired, weedy-looking adjs.; weedy-slow adv.
1958J. Betjeman Coll. Poems 263 A mounting arch of water weedy-brown.
1819Keats Lines to Fanny 36 That monstrous region, whose dull rivers pour, Ever from their sordid urns unto the shore, Unown'd of any weedy-haired gods.
1854G. J. Whyte-Melville Gen. Bounce vii, His fastidious taste cannot but admit that there are ‘some weedy-looking ones among 'em’. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xxxiii, Tom thought them weedy-looking animals. 1866Treas. Bot. 139/2 Various genera of coarse weedy-looking plants.
1923E. Sitwell Bucolic Comedies 38 In the Castles drownèd long ago Where the empty years pass weedy-slow.
Hence ˈweediness, the quality or state of being ‘weedy’; lack of physical presence; feebleness.
1924Wodehouse Bill the Conqueror v. 103 He had a certain weediness, a lack of thews and sinews. 1925W. Deeping Sorrell & Son viii. 80 He realized that in spite of the other man's weediness he was a competitor who was to be respected.
▪ II. weedy, a.2|ˈwiːdɪ|
[f. weed n.2 + y1.]
Of a woman: Wearing widow's ‘weeds’, clad in mourning.
1848Longfellow Life (1891) II. 133 A weedy woman came sweeping up to us, and introduced herself as an admirer. 1850Dickens Dav. Copp. xvii, She still wore weeds. I think there was some compromise in the cap; but otherwise she was as weedy as in the early days of her mourning. 1887Jessopp Arcady 155 Think of the blank despair that would take hold of the weedy widows and desolate orphans when they applied for their share of the surplus. |