What's the difference between feeble and weak?

Feeble


Definition:

  • (superl.) Deficient in physical strength; weak; infirm; debilitated.
  • (superl.) Wanting force, vigor, or efficiency in action or expression; not full, loud, bright, strong, rapid, etc.; faint; as, a feeble color; feeble motion.
  • (v. t.) To make feble; to enfeeble.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Arsenal’s 10 men fall at the first hurdle against Dinamo Zagreb Read more This win, even against such feeble opponents, was celebrated, with the locals chorusing their manager’s name amid a wave of relief given so much of the team’s domestic campaign to date has been dismal.
  • (2) A Tory spokesman said: “This is feeble stuff from a party with no economic plan and a leader who just isn’t up it.
  • (3) The most important manometric abnormality was the feeble contractions of the pharyngeal musculature, more pronounced in patients with severe dysphagia (grade II).
  • (4) After Cameron wasted an overlap opportunity with a feeble cross into Elliot’s arms, Mark Hughes made an overdue substitution and sent on Peter Crouch.
  • (5) In Catalonia the outspoken local politician is derided as a feeble sellout for opposing total independence; in the rest of Spain he is damned as a rabid separatist for wanting a bit more self-governance.
  • (6) These data indicate that Veillonella and Neisseria species possess a feeble ability to attach to cleaned teeth.
  • (7) If you want to compare effective regulation with weak regulation, compare the utterly feeble 2009 PCC report into phone hacking with the way the former independent television regulator, the ITC, reacted when, back in 1998, the Guardian published allegations about a programme on drug-running made by Carlton TV.
  • (8) As good a way as any would have been to have followed the Twitter feed of one of his backbench MPs, Gloria De Piero, who was tweeting: “The government has a mandate to open Brexit negotiations but not a blank cheque that puts jobs, workers’ rights and our economy at risk.” Instead, he chose to go for a feeble joke.
  • (9) In treating vertebragenic headache, the segmental movement, the shortened postural muscles, the feeble phasic muscles and the wrong patterns of movement can be influenced by exercises.
  • (10) No proliferative activity is seen in the giant cells and these cells show only feeble phagocytic activity, tested by their ability to take up carbon particles.
  • (11) A muscle that has feeble tendon jerks may show a late component in the response to a tendon tap, with a latency similar to that of the long-latency stretch reflex.
  • (12) The administration of a convulsant dose of penicillin enhanced the transmission of monosynaptic reflexes in spinal cords in which reflex transmission was feeble before the drug treatment, but it had little effect in cords where monosynaptic reflexes were powerful to begin with.
  • (13) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Boris Johnson: ‘Saudi Arabia and Iran puppeteering in Middle East’ – video It’s true, the Saudis are propping up Yemen’s feeble half-government against a rebellion by Iranian-backed tribal militias.
  • (14) At the other extreme with an average allograft survival time of 91 days, C3H(H-1(a)) --> C3H.K(H-1(b)) showed a feeble production of plaque-forming cells with a peak response of 3.7 per 10 x 10(6) viable spleen cells at 9 days.
  • (15) But this much is clear: the old system of regulation was feeble.
  • (16) We have espoused unpopular causes, stood up for those too feeble to stand up for themselves, locked horns with the high and mighty so swollen with power that they have forgotten their roots, exposed corruption and the waste of your hard-earned tax rupees, and made sure that whatever the propaganda of the day, you were allowed to hear a contrary view.
  • (17) Of the several esophageal body motor abnormalities considered, only feeble peristalsis had significantly more positive Bernstein tests than did normal esophageal body motor functioning.
  • (18) Failures picked over include parliament's dithering over election laws that could result in the country going into a crucial presidential poll next year with no legal framework, the feeble sentences handed to the masterminds of the $900m Kabul Bank scandal and slow progress on asset recovery.
  • (19) For mild cooling (32 degrees C), the Q10 in 18-day-old embryos was about 1.5, while 12- and 16-day-old embryos had a Q10 value of about 2, indicating that a feeble homeothermic metabolic response to cooling appears in late prenatal embryos.
  • (20) "The justifications presented [for] the reduction are, to say the least, feeble.

Weak


Definition:

  • (v. i.) Wanting physical strength.
  • (v. i.) Deficient in strength of body; feeble; infirm; sickly; debilitated; enfeebled; exhausted.
  • (v. i.) Not able to sustain a great weight, pressure, or strain; as, a weak timber; a weak rope.
  • (v. i.) Not firmly united or adhesive; easily broken or separated into pieces; not compact; as, a weak ship.
  • (v. i.) Not stiff; pliant; frail; soft; as, the weak stalk of a plant.
  • (v. i.) Not able to resist external force or onset; easily subdued or overcome; as, a weak barrier; as, a weak fortress.
  • (v. i.) Lacking force of utterance or sound; not sonorous; low; small; feeble; faint.
  • (v. i.) Not thoroughly or abundantly impregnated with the usual or required ingredients, or with stimulating and nourishing substances; of less than the usual strength; as, weak tea, broth, or liquor; a weak decoction or solution; a weak dose of medicine.
  • (v. i.) Lacking ability for an appropriate function or office; as, weak eyes; a weak stomach; a weak magistrate; a weak regiment, or army.
  • (v. i.) Not possessing or manifesting intellectual, logical, moral, or political strength, vigor, etc.
  • (v. i.) Feeble of mind; wanting discernment; lacking vigor; spiritless; as, a weak king or magistrate.
  • (v. i.) Resulting from, or indicating, lack of judgment, discernment, or firmness; unwise; hence, foolish.
  • (v. i.) Not having full confidence or conviction; not decided or confirmed; vacillating; wavering.
  • (v. i.) Not able to withstand temptation, urgency, persuasion, etc.; easily impressed, moved, or overcome; accessible; vulnerable; as, weak resolutions; weak virtue.
  • (v. i.) Wanting in power to influence or bind; as, weak ties; a weak sense of honor of duty.
  • (v. i.) Not having power to convince; not supported by force of reason or truth; unsustained; as, a weak argument or case.
  • (v. i.) Wanting in point or vigor of expression; as, a weak sentence; a weak style.
  • (v. i.) Not prevalent or effective, or not felt to be prevalent; not potent; feeble.
  • (v. i.) Lacking in elements of political strength; not wielding or having authority or energy; deficient in the resources that are essential to a ruler or nation; as, a weak monarch; a weak government or state.
  • (v. i.) Tending towards lower prices; as, a weak market.
  • (v. i.) Pertaining to, or designating, a verb which forms its preterit (imperfect) and past participle by adding to the present the suffix -ed, -d, or the variant form -t; as in the verbs abash, abashed; abate, abated; deny, denied; feel, felt. See Strong, 19 (a).
  • (v. i.) Pertaining to, or designating, a noun in Anglo-Saxon, etc., the stem of which ends in -n. See Strong, 19 (b).
  • (a.) To make or become weak; to weaken.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There was a weak relation between AER and both systolic and diastolic blood pressures.
  • (2) Muscle weakness and atrophy were most marked in the distal parts of the legs, especially in the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles, and then spread to the thighs and gluteal muscles.
  • (3) Consensual but rationally weak criteria devised to extract inferences of causality from such results confirm the generic inadequacy of epidemiology in this area, and are unable to provide definitive scientific support to the perceived mandate for public health action.
  • (4) The strengths and weaknesses of each technique are described in this article.
  • (5) In group V, five cases of Taenia saginata parasitosis were studied showing a weak positive reading.
  • (6) Although the longest period required for resolving weakness was three days, the MRI, the CT and the electroencephalogram revealed no significant abnormality.
  • (7) Her muscle weakness and hyperCKemia markedly improved by corticosteroid therapy, suggesting that the diagnosis was compatible with polymyositis (PM).
  • (8) It was concluded that Ta acts as a weak zeitgeber in laboratory rats and has greater effects on males compared to females.
  • (9) And adding to this toxic mix, was the fear that the hung parliament would lead to a weak government.
  • (10) Sensory loss, motor weakness, paraesthesia and a new pain were found as complications in 12, 7, 4 and 6 patients, respectively.
  • (11) Here's Dominic's full story: US unemployment rate drops to lowest level in six years as 288,000 jobs added Michael McKee (@mckonomy) BNP economists say jobless rate would have been 6.8% if not for drop in participation rate May 2, 2014 2.20pm BST ING's Rob Carnell is also struck by the "extraordinary weakness" of US wage growth .
  • (12) In general, enzyme activity was strongly reduced by heavy metal inorganic cations; less strongly by organometallic cations, some anions, and certain pesticides; and weakly inhibited by light metal cations and organometallic and organic compounds.
  • (13) The weakness was treated by intensive physical rehabilitation with complete and sustained recovery in all cases.
  • (14) It also showed weak inhibition of the solid type of Ehrlich carcinoma and prolonged the survival period of mice inoculated with L-1210 cells.
  • (15) Exposure to whole cigarette smoke from reference cigarettes results in the prompt (peak activity is 6 hrs), but fairly weak (similar to 2 fold), induction of murine pulmonary microsomal monooxygenase activity.
  • (16) Though the concept of phase, known also as focus, is a very helpful notion, its empirical foundation is yet very weak.
  • (17) DL 071 IT, a new potent non-selective beta-adrenergic blocking drug with intrinsic sympathomimetic activity and weak membrane stabilizing activity, was evaluated alone and in comparison with oxprenolol, in six volunteers, at rest and during an exercise test.
  • (18) A variety of weak acids at and below their pK(a) are potent inhibitors of transport in Penicillium chrysogenum.
  • (19) It added that the crisis had highlighted significant weaknesses in financial regulation, with further measures needed to strengthen supervision.
  • (20) The radioprotective action in E. coli ATCC 9637 of ascorbate added to media containing the weak sensitizer, tetracycline (effect described by Pittillo and Lucas (1967)), was found to be dependent on the presence of metal catalysts of the autoxidation of ascorbate.