Weed, n. A sudden illness or relapse,
often attended with fever, which attacks women in childbed.
[Scot.]
Weed, n. [OE. weed, weod, AS.
weód, wiód, akin to OS. wiod, LG.
woden the stalks and leaves of vegetables D. wieden to weed,
OS. wiodōn.]
1. Underbrush; low shrubs. [Obs. or
Archaic]
One rushing forth out of the thickest
weed.
Spenser.
A wild and wanton pard . . .
Crouched fawning in the weed.
Tennyson.
2. Any plant growing in cultivated ground to the
injury of the crop or desired vegetation, or to the disfigurement of the
place; an unsightly, useless, or injurious plant.
Too much manuring filled that field with
weeds.
Denham.
☞ The word has no definite application to any particular plant, or
species of plants. Whatever plants grow among corn or grass, in hedges, or
elsewhere, and are useless to man, injurious to crops, or unsightly or out
of place, are denominated weeds.
3. Fig.: Something unprofitable or troublesome;
anything useless.
4. (Stock Breeding) An animal unfit to breed
from.
5. Tobacco, or a cigar. [Slang]
Weed hook, a hook used for cutting away or
extirpating weeds. Tusser.
Weed, v. t. [imp. & p. p.
Weeded; p. pr. & vb. n. Weeding.] [AS.
weódian. See 3d Weed.]
1. To free from noxious plants; to clear of weeds;
as, to weed corn or onions; to weed a garden.
2. To take away, as noxious plants; to remove, as
something hurtful; to extirpate. "Weed up thyme."
Shak.
Wise fathers . . . weeding from their children ill
things.
Ascham.
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's
nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
Bacon.
3. To free from anything hurtful or
offensive.
He weeded the kingdom of such as were devoted to
Elaiana.
Howell.
4. (Stock Breeding) To reject as unfit for
breeding purposes.
Weed (?), n. [OE. wede, AS.
w?de, w?d; akin to OS. wādi,
giwādi, OFries, w?de, w?d, OD. wade,
OHG. wāt, Icel. vā?, Zend vadh to
clothe.]
1. A garment; clothing; especially, an upper or
outer garment. "Low?ly shepherd's weeds." Spenser.
"Woman's weeds." Shak. "This beggar woman's weed."
Tennyson.
He on his bed sat, the soft weeds he wore
Put off.
Chapman.
2. An article of dress worn in token of grief; a
mourning garment or badge; as, he wore a weed on his hat;
especially, in the plural, mourning garb, as of a woman; as, a widow's
weeds.
In a mourning weed, with ashes upon her head, and
tears abundantly flowing.
Milton.