weakling

From weak + -ling.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwiːkˈlɪŋɡ/, /ˈwiːklɪŋɡ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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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 constitution): twerk, twerp
• (person of weak character): pushover, sissy, weenie; see also Thesaurus:milksop

• strongling

weakling

1. weak, either physically, morally or mentally

• “weakling” in Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary: Based on Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 7th edition, Springfield, Mass.: G[eorge] & C[harles] Merriam, 1963 (1967 printing), →OCLC.