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To deprive of nerve, force, or strength; to weaken; to enfeeble; as, to unnerve the arm. Unequal match'd, . . . The unnerved father falls. Shak.

Want of power; weakness. [Obs.] Piers Plowman.

Not powerful; weak. Cowley.

Infirmity; weakness. [Obs.] Wyclif.

Want of strength; weakness; feebleness. [Obs.] Wyclif.

Of infirm health; seeking to recover health; sickly; weakly; infirm. My feeble health and valetudinarian stomach. Coleridge. The virtue which the world wants is a healthful virtue, not a valetudinarian virtue. Macaulay.

ength or force; founded in truth; capable of being justified, defended, or supported; not weak or defective; sound; good; efficacious; as, a valid argument; a valid objection. An answer that is open to no valid exception. I. Taylor.

o the middle of the 16th, usurping many of the functions of the government which were too weak to maintain law and order, and inspiring dread in all who came within their jurisdiction. Encyc. Brit.

him the while venial discourse unblamed." Milton. Venial sin (R. C. Theol.), a sin which weakens, but does not wholly destroy, sanctifying grace, as do mortal, or deadly, sins. -- Ve"ni*al*ly, adv. -- Ve"ni*al*ness, n. Bp. Hall.

rnal deposition of secondary membranes; a duct. Acoustic vessels. See under Acoustic. -- Weaker vessel, a woman; -- now applied humorously. "Giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel." 1 Peter iii. 7. "You are the weaker vessel." Shak.

A mask used to disfigure or disguise. "My very visor began to assume life." Shak. My weaker government since, makes you pull off the visor. Sir P. Sidney.

A short or weak utterance; a faint or feeble sound, as that heard on separating the lips in pronouncing p or b. Rush. -- Voc"u*lar, a.

To expose one's self to, as a risk; to incur, as a danger; to venture; to hazard. "Too weak to wage an instant trial with the king." Shak. To wake and wage a danger profitless. Shak.

Not to be depended on; weak; unstable. [Prov. Eng.] Grose.

To cause to shake; to tremble; to move tremulously, as from weakness; to totter. [Obs.]

Washy; weak. [Obs.] Their bodies of so weak and wash a temper. Beau. & Fl.

The quality or state of being washy, watery, or weak.

Lacking substance or strength; weak; thin; dilute; feeble; as, washy tea; washy resolutions. A polish . . . not over thin and washy. Sir H. Wotton.

ing the quantity or bulk while reducing the strength or quality; to extend; to dilute; to weaken. To water stock, to increase the capital stock of a company by issuing new stock, thus diminishing the value of the individual shares. Cf. Water, n., 7. [Brokers' Cant]

Weak. [Obs.] Chaucer.