weakie

English

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

Clipping of weakfish + -ie.

Noun

weakie (plural weakies)

1. (US, colloquial) A weakfish.
   • 1959, Henry Lyman, Frank Woolner, The Complete Book of Weakfishing, New York, N.Y.: A. S. Barnes and Company, page 44:

     Although the weakie has no chopping teeth comparable to those of a bluefish, he boasts a pair of extremely sharp canines in his upper jaw.

Etymology 2

From weak +‎ -ie.

Noun

weakie (plural weakies)

1. (originally US, now chiefly Australia, slang) A weak, unreliable or mediocre person or thing; a weakling.
   • 1955, D'Arcy Niland, The Shiralee, Sydney, N.S.W.: Angus & Robertson; The Book Society, pages 53–54:

     That was as far as Macauley would go. He wanted to set his shoulders and bunch his fists and let the words fly at O' Neill: You can spot the stranger that comes on a visit and mark him down; you can swagger the streets at shearing-time and reap a harvest; but don't lump me in with the weakies and the yellow-bellies busting their cheques over a good time; the curs and the possums who get silly-drunk and fall in fear to your authority.

2. (especially chess and poker, rare) An unskilled player.

   Synonyms: (chess) patzer, (chess) woodpusher

   • 2010, John Healy, Coffeehouse Chess Tactics: An Astonishing Trip Into the World of Competitive Chess, Alkmaar, Netherlands: New In Chess, page 17:

     And now we enter the real chess arena, where, haughty about ratings, everybody has only one thought in mind: to win — to pile up plaudits against the county grader's autumnal assessment. And to this end we all hope for a weaker opponent, but in the tournaments there are no outright weakies.

See also

not etymologically related

• weakiness
• weaky

 

References

• “weakie n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
• “weakie, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “weakie, n.²”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.