Tumbleweed vs Weed - What's the difference?
tumbleweed | weed | Derived terms |
Any plant which habitually breaks away from its roots in the autumn, and is driven by the wind, as a light, rolling mass, over the fields and prairies; as witch grass, wild indigo, , etc.
(attributive) Describing unwanted silence and inactivity. Often used of a situation when one makes a statement that is ignored or ill-received from one’s audience. Gives the impression that a tumbleweed has passed through the room, as the resultant silence is likened to that of a desolate desert.
* 2000 January 21, "Plsntgrn" in alt.music.progressive, "Re: SOAR Budget (A Long Guestimate)" [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.progressive/msg/c5bc2926d0712699]:
* 2005 , Trevor Wright, How to Be a Brilliant English Teacher [http://books.google.com/books?id=5V64WA533MoC], ISBN 041533246X, page 68:
A plant.
# (label) Any plant growing in cultivated ground to the injury of the crop or desired vegetation, or to the disfigurement of the place; an unsightly, useless, or injurious plant.
#*{{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)
, title= # (label) A species of plant considered harmful to the environment or regarded as a nuisance.
# Short for duckweed.
# Underbrush; low shrubs.
#* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
#* (1809-1892)
A drug or the like made from the leaves of a plant.
# Marijuana.
# Tobacco.
# A cigar.
A horse unfit to breed from.
A puny person; one who has with little physical strength.
A sudden illness or relapse, often attended with fever, which attacks women in childbed.
Something unprofitable or troublesome; anything useless.
(archaic) A garment or piece of clothing.
(archaic) Clothing collectively; clothes, dress.
* 1599 ,
* 1819 , Walter Scott, Ivanhoe
(archaic) An article of dress worn in token of grief; a mourning garment or badge.
(archaic) widow's weeds : female mourning apparel
* Milton
(wee)
Tumbleweed is a derived term of weed.
As nouns the difference between tumbleweed and weed
is that tumbleweed is any plant which habitually breaks away from its roots in the autumn, and is driven by the wind, as a light, rolling mass, over the fields and prairies; as witch grass, wild indigo, amaranthus albus , etc while weed is (countable) any plant growing in cultivated ground to the injury of the crop or desired vegetation, or to the disfigurement of the place; an unsightly, useless, or injurious plant or weed can be (archaic) a garment or piece of clothing.As a adjective tumbleweed
is describing unwanted silence and inactivity often used of a situation when one makes a statement that is ignored or ill-received from one’s audience gives the impression that a tumbleweed has passed through the room, as the resultant silence is likened to that of a desolate desert.As a verb weed is
to remove unwanted vegetation from a cultivated area or weed can be (wee).tumbleweed
English
Noun
(wikipedia tumbleweed)- Putting an ad in the local paper that Spock's Beard and Arena are in town will get you a tumbleweed response and some wasted revenue.
- "Why do families argue?" may only induce the tumbleweed response. (Could you answer that question out of the blue?)
Derived terms
* tumbleweed momentweed
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)The Three Corpse Trick, chapter=5 , passage=The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds . Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.}}
- one rushing forth out of the thickest weed
- A wild and wanton pard/ Crouched fawning in the weed .
Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* goutweed * hawkweed * horseweed * in the weeds * knapweed * knotweed * milkweed * pigweed * ragweed * tumbleweedSee also
* grow like a weed * weedsEtymology 2
From (etyl) .See also
* weed outEtymology 3
From (etyl) , from which also wad, wadmal. Cognate to Dutch lijnwaad, gewaad, German Wat.Noun
(en noun)- DON PEDRO. Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds ;
- And then to Leonato's we will go.
- CLAUDIO. And Hymen now with luckier issue speed's,
- Than this for whom we rend'red up this woe!
- These two dignified persons were followed by their respective attendants, and at a more humble distance by their guide, whose figure had nothing more remarkable than it derived from the usual weeds of a pilgrim.
- He wore a weed on his hat.
- In a mourning weed , with ashes upon her head, and tears abundantly flowing.
