weakling - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From weak + -ling.

weakling (plural weaklings)

  1. A person of weak or even sickly physical constitution.
    • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 17:
      “_Mon Dieu!_” he soliloquized, “but they are all alike. Cheating, murdering, lying, fighting, and all for things that the beasts of the jungle would not deign to possess—money to purchase the effeminate pleasures of weaklings. And yet withal bound down by silly customs that make them slaves to their unhappy lot while firm in the belief that they be the lords of creation enjoying the only real pleasures of existence.
  2. (figuratively) A person of weak character, lacking in courage and/or moral strength.
    • c.1551, Hugh Latimer, a sermon in Lincolnshire
      We may not be weaklings because we have a strong enemy.
    • 2025 July 17, Oliver Holmes, “Trump calls Epstein conspiracy a ‘hoax’ and turns on Maga ‘weaklings’”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      Donald Trump has lashed out against his own supporters, calling them gullible “weaklings” for questioning the transparency of a secretive government inquiry into the late high-profile socialite and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

person of weak or even sickly physical constitution

person of weak character

Translations to be checked

weakling

  1. weak, either physically, morally or mentally

weak, either physically, morally or mentally

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