1577, Barnabe Googe (translator), The Foure Bookes of Husbandry, collected by M. Conradus Heresbachius, London: Richard Watkins, Book 1, p. 27,
Wheate delighteth in a leuell, riche, warme, and a drye ground: a shaddowy, weedy, and a hilly ground, it loueth not […]
Of, relating to or resembling weeds.
Consisting of weeds.
1917, James Joyce, “Flood” in Poetry, Volume 10, April-September, 1917, p. 73,
A waste of waters ruthlessly
Sways and uplifts its weedy mane,
Where brooding day stares down upon the sea
In dull disdain.
(botany) Characteristic of a plant that grows rapidly and spreads invasively, and which grows opportunistically in cracks of sidewalks and disturbed areas.
a weedy species
a weedy vine
(figurative, of a person or animal) Small and weak.
a weedy lad
1924, Edith Wharton, The Spark (The Sixties), Chapter 2, in Old New York, New York: 1981, p. 146,
Byrne was hurling himself across the field, crouched on the neck of his somewhat weedy mount […]
(figurative, UK, Ireland, informal) Lacking power or effectiveness.
a weedy excuse
a weedy attempt
a weedy motor
2016, Orla Kiely, quoted in “Designs for life from Orla Kiely,” Irish Independent, 3 April, 2016,
We wanted to make sure that our jewellery made a statement, that it wasn't wimpy or weedy.