What does "weed" mean?
Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing.
Weed
/wiːd/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing.
- Grammar: weed is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: pot, abate, abrade, abstract.
- Useful contrasts: alyssum, carnation, clearheadedness.
- Usage evidence: These plants are resistant to weed killers.
How to use "weed"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "weed" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "weed" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "weed" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "weed" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "weed" is acting as name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "pot" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "weed", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing. countable
"If it isn't in a straight line or marked with a label, it's a weed."
- 2 A garment or piece of clothing. archaic
"Lie here ye weedes that I diſdaine to weare, This compleat armor, and this curtle-axe Are adiuncts more beſeeming Tamburlaine."
- 3 A sudden illness or relapse, often attended with fever, which befalls those who are about to give birth, are giving birth, or have recently given birth or miscarried or aborted. Scotland, countable, uncountable
"The patient […] aborted between the second and third month; […] felt herself so well on the second day after, that she went to the washing-green; and, on her return home in the evening, was seized with a violent rigor, which, by herself and those around her, was considered as the forerunner of a weed."
- 4 street names for marijuana wordnet
- 5 Ellipsis of duckweed. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable
Show 14 more definitions
- 6 Clothing collectively; clothes, dress. archaic
"His mother o'er her barm-cloth wide / Gazed forward somewhat timidly / The new-comer's bright weed to see."
- 7 Lymphangitis in a horse. Scotland, countable, uncountable
- 8 a black band worn by a man (on the arm or hat) as a sign of mourning wordnet
- 9 Underbrush; low shrubs. archaic, obsolete, uncountable
"one rushing forth out of the thickest weed"
- 10 An article of dress worn in token of grief; a mourning garment or badge. archaic
"He wore a weed on his hat."
- 11 any plant that crowds out cultivated plants wordnet
- 12 A drug or the like made from the leaves of a plant.; Cannabis. informal, uncountable
"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."
- 13 A hatband. archaic
"[…] he was beat and retreated back to his old encampment with his weed on his hat dragging on the ground, with the loss of more than nineteen hundred men; […]"
- 14 A drug or the like made from the leaves of a plant.; Tobacco. colloquial, uncountable
- 15 Especially in the plural as widow's weeds: (female) mourning apparel. archaic
"O Sir, if we could but see the shape of our deare Mother England, as poets are wont to give a personal form to what they please, how would she appeare, think ye, but in a mourning weed, with ashes upon her head, and tears abundantly flowing from her eyes, to behold so many of her children expos'd at once, and thrust from things of dearest necessity, because their conscience could not assent to things which the Bishops thought indifferent."
- 16 A drug or the like made from the leaves of a plant.; A cigar. countable, obsolete
- 17 A weak horse, which is therefore unfit to breed from. countable
- 18 A puny person; one who has little physical strength. British, countable, informal
- 19 Something unprofitable or troublesome; anything useless. countable, figuratively
Verb
- 1 To remove unwanted vegetation from a cultivated area (especially grass). transitive
"I weeded my flower bed."
- 2 simple past and past participle of wee form-of, participle, past
- 3 clear of weeds wordnet
- 4 To pilfer the best items from a collection. figuratively, transitive
"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."
- 5 To systematically remove materials from a library collection based on a set of criteria. transitive
"We usually weed romance novels that haven't circulated in over a year."
Proper Noun
- 1 A city in Siskiyou County, California, United States.
Antonyms
Example
"These plants are resistant to weed killers."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "weed"?
Common synonyms include: pot, abate, abrade, abstract, acid, amphibian.
How do you use "weed" in a sentence?
These plants are resistant to weed killers.
How do you pronounce "weed"?
Pronounced /wiːd/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English weed, weod, from Old English wēod (“weed”), from Proto-West Germanic *weud (“weed”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Jood (“weed”), West Frisian wjûd (“weed”), Dutch wied (“unwanted plant, weed”), German Low German Weed (“weed”), Old High German wiota (“fern”). See also woad.
Etymology 2
From Middle English weeden, weden, from Old English wēodian (“to weed”), from Proto-Germanic *weudōną (“to uproot, weed”). Cognate with West Frisian wjûde, wjudde (“to weed”), Dutch wieden (“to weed”), German Low German weden (“to weed”).
Etymology 3
From Middle English wede, from Old English wǣd (“dress, attire, clothing, garment”), from Proto-Germanic *wēdiz, from which also wad, wadmal. Cognate with Dutch lijnwaad, Dutch gewaad, German Wat.
Etymology 4
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”).
Etymology 5
From the verb wee.