weakly
/ˈwiːkli/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.17 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Frail, sickly or of a delicate constitution; weak.
Example Sentences
- "I lay in weakly case and confined to my bed for four months before I was able to rise and health returned to me."
- "I'd always been but weakly, / And my baby was just born; / A neighbour minded her by day, / I minded her till morn."
- ""Oh, a huge crab," Jacob murmured—and begins his journey on weakly legs on the sandy bottom."
- "The basitemporal platform is flat in posterior view because the mamillar tuberosities are very weakly developed."
Etymology
From Old English wāclīċe (“weakly”), equivalent to weak + -ly (adjectival suffix); compare Old English wāclīċ (“weak; ignoble; mean”), and Old Norse veikligr (“weakly; sick”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *waikalīkaz (“weakly; weak”).
Origin
- Source language: Old English
Word Breakdown
- Root: wāclīċe, *waikalīkaz, weykly, *waikalīkō