weeds
English
Etymology 1
Inflected form of weed.
Etymology 2
From Old English wǣd, wǣde.
Noun
weeds pl (plural only)
- (obsolete) Clothes.
- 1600, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, v 3
- Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds;
- 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter I, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292, book III:
- Nor can the judicious reader be at a greater loss on account of Mrs Bridget Blifil, who, he may be assured, conducted herself through the whole season in which grief is to make its appearance on the outside of the body, with the strictest regard to all the rules of custom and decency, suiting the alterations of her countenance to the several alterations of her habit: for as this changed from weeds to black, from black to grey, from grey to white, so did her countenance change from dismal to sorrowful, from sorrowful to sad, and from sad to serious, till the day came in which she was allowed to return to her former serenity.
- 1886, Aeschylus, Choephori, translated by Anna Swanwick, lines 10–12
- What sight is this? What company of women
Is wending hitherward, in sable weeds
Conspicuous?
- What sight is this? What company of women
- 1600, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, v 3
Usage notes
Fossil word, found in phrase widow's weeds.
Derived terms
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