languor, enervation; impotence &c 158; infirmity; effeminacy,
feminality†; fragility, flaccidity; inactivity &c 683.
anaemia, bloodlessness, deficiency of blood, poverty of blood.
declension of strength, loss of strength, failure of strength;
delicacy, invalidation, decrepitude, asthenia†, adynamy†, cachexy†,
cachexia [Med.], sprain, strain.
reed, thread, rope of sand, house of cards.
softling†, weakling; infant &c 129; youth &c 127.
V. be weak &c adj.; drop, crumble, give way, totter, tremble, shake,
halt, limp, fade, languish, decline, flag, fail, have one leg in the
grave.
render weak &c adj.; weaken, enfeeble, debilitate, shake, deprive
of strength, relax, enervate, eviscerate; unbrace, unnerve; cripple,
unman &c (render powerless) 158; cramp, reduce, sprain, strain, blunt
the edge of; dilute, impoverish; decimate; extenuate; reduce in
strength, reduce the strength of; mettre de l'eau dans son vin [Fr.].
Adj. weak, feeble, debile†; impotent &c 158; relaxed, unnerved, &c v.;
sapless, strengthless†, powerless; weakly, unstrung, flaccid, adynamic†,
asthenic†; nervous.
soft, effeminate, feminate†, womanly.
frail, fragile, shattery†; flimsy, unsubstantial, insubstantial,
gimcrack, gingerbread; rickety, creaky, creaking, cranky; craichy†;
drooping, tottering &c v.. broken, lame, withered, shattered, shaken,
crazy, shaky; palsied &c 158; decrepit.
languid, poor, infirm; faint, faintish†; sickly &c (disease) 655;
dull, slack, evanid†, spent, short-winded, effete; weather-beaten;
decayed, rotten, worn, seedy, languishing, wasted, washy, laid low,
pulled down, the worse for wear.
unstrengthened &c 159 [Obs.], unsupported, unaided, unassisted;
aidless†, defenseless &c 158; cantilevered (support) 215.
on its last legs; weak as a child, weak as a baby, weak as a
chicken, weak as a cat, weak as a rat; weak as water, weak as water
gruel, weak as gingerbread, weak as milk and water; colorless &c 429.
Phr. non sum qualis eram [Lat.].