verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
fatally flawed/weakened/damaged etc
▪ Bolton’s idea was fatally flawed.
undermine/damage/weaken sb’s confidence (=make someone have less confidence)
▪ The situation in the US was undermining foreign confidence in the dollar.
undermine/weaken sb’s authority (=make someone’s authority weaker)
▪ I wasn’t trying to undermine your authority.
weaken sb’s position (=give someone a bigger disadvantage)
▪ The Prime Minister's position had been weakened by allegations of financial mismanagement.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
already
▪ If the digestion is already weakened then it will not cope with a totally raw food diet.
considerably
▪ Since the Conservatives came to power they have considerably weakened local government and greater centralisation has been the consequence.
▪ At the same time, formal affirmative action programs are likely to be weakened considerably in the move toward flexible organizations.
fatally
▪ But on the day of reckoning a divided Kurdistan could be a fatally weakened one.
▪ The arms scandal had fatally weakened the partnership.
further
▪ The Supreme Court is expected to weaken further the nationwide constitutional protection for abortion early next year.
▪ In the case of spending and tax legislation, majority rule is thus further weakened.
▪ The political in-fighting further weakened the already fragile euro.
▪ One way is by operating on a person, but this can be dangerous because it can further weaken a patient.
▪ The mujaheddin attack was further weakened by internal rivalries.
▪ The present contest has further weakened the Campaign Group.
▪ The transference of the principle of democratic centralism from party to state organization further weakens accountability and the role of elected bodies.
greatly
▪ Once machines seriously began to replace hand-setting, the argument about apprenticeship would be greatly weakened.
▪ The ultimate effect is greatly weakened if an older drug is ineffective against the mutated virus.
▪ These two internal rows greatly weakened the movement.
seriously
▪ The tying of aid for imports has seriously weakened the policy of standardizing equipment.
▪ He knows Clinton will not propose and Congress will not enact legislation to seriously weaken provisions of the new law.
▪ In effect the Unity Campaign was already seriously weakened.
▪ The effect was devastating, seriously weakening Mrs Thatcher's hold on the premiership and making a leadership contest virtually inevitable.
▪ Then, because of their geographical position, they were seriously weakened by the Viking onslaught down the east coast.
▪ Moreover his domestic position was seriously weakened by his obvious lack of success as a diplomat and a military commander.
■ NOUN
authority
▪ And though Karadzic and Mladic remain free, the indictments weaken their authority and ensure they do not leave the country.
case
▪ The absence of this crucial witness seemed likely to weaken the case against Papandreou.
▪ Where Clinton speaks with one voice, they speak with several, weakening their philosophical case.
▪ This move weakens the case for a separate legislature at Stormont.
▪ Sending Galindo off with the national title might weaken the case for the United States.
▪ Despite the attempt to treat the Pythagorean example as an exception, it can not but weaken Goody's case.
dollar
▪ But yesterday's sales of Ecus highlighted the conflict between official efforts to defend the pound and weaken the dollar.
▪ When the yen weakens, dollar-based investors see their total return eroded.
▪ He forecast that the yen will weaken against the dollar for the next two years.
economy
▪ Budget savings will weaken an already sickly economy.
▪ A weakening economy might further complicate Bush's budget math.
▪ Lloyd said he was concerned that a weakening domestic economy would hurt the railroads in 1996.
▪ People are looking for a weakening economy and supply is rising.
government
▪ The centralization from above, and decentralization to markets and consumers below, has weakened local government.
▪ In a meeting, Mrs Aquino said the rebels had a started a disinformation campaign to weaken her government.
▪ Since the Conservatives came to power they have considerably weakened local government and greater centralisation has been the consequence.
movement
▪ The depression which spread from 1899 only temporarily weakened the strike movement and aggravated unemployment and urban discontent.
▪ But the unions' unpopularity in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and Labour's electoral decline also weakened the movement.
▪ These two internal rows greatly weakened the movement.
position
▪ Various new findings have weakened the position of the sceptics on climate change.
▪ Most observers believed that he caved in only because of his weakened political position due to the Watergate scandal.
▪ These things weaken the position of the Black woman, and have been done deliberately.
▪ Pilger had agreed but had apparently not realized how this weakened his position.
▪ The weakening position can be traced back to the Hatfield crash last October, in which four people died.
▪ This weakened his position as a symbol of the national struggle.
▪ This omission certainly weakened his position during the struggle that lay ahead.
▪ If Gaddafi survived, would it weaken or strengthen his position as leader?
power
▪ Labour would disrupt industrial peace by weakening the power of management and the courts.
▪ The divisions amongst the Christians weakened their power of resistance and may have contributed to the Ottoman victories of the sixteenth century.
structure
▪ In the case of monuments and historical buildings, the erosion and damage can destroy carvings and statues and weaken building structures.
▪ Eventually the water weakens the structure, and the walls and floors collapse.
▪ It is possible to remove the interior bulkhead but it supports the sides of the body and its removal weakens the structure.
▪ But such barriers, according to bridge manager Bob Warren, would weaken the structure by lowering its resistance to wind.
▪ Of particular interest are genes that reduce the amount of a substance called lignin, or that weaken lignin's chemical structure.
▪ I do not like this move at all since it gratuitously weakens Black's pawn structure in the centre.
▪ This so weakened the structure that the car was withdrawn and dismantled, revealing the unglamorous Fleetwood car 141 underneath.
▪ Decaying steelwork and water leaks have weakened the tunnel structures, and many stations are in need of major refurbishment.
system
▪ Such infections may leave people more vulnerable to the risk of infection by weakening their immune system.
▪ Infections in the bloodstream, urinary tract or lungs usually are dangerous only to people with other illnesses and weakened immune systems.
▪ Earlier research has suggested a link between grief and a weakened immune system.
▪ Salmonella can cause a little diarrhea in some people, but can be deadly for those with immature or weakened immune systems.
▪ This weakening of life-supporting systems poses health risks.
▪ Here it sits waiting for a dose of stress to weaken your immune system when out it pops.
yen
▪ When the yen weakens, dollar-based investors see their total return eroded.
▪ He forecast that the yen will weaken against the dollar for the next two years.
▪ Then, as the yen weakened again to 104. 2 in mid-September, the Nikkei bounced back to 18474. 38.
■ VERB
begin
▪ For three hours until the sun began to weaken he watched the boy begging for water.
▪ That sickness had begun to weaken his spirit as the treatment went on and on, seemingly without success.
▪ And the D-mark has lately begun to weaken.
▪ By the 1970s, that binding force began to weaken and it has been gradually unravelling ever since.
▪ At the same time the conservative and pacifying influence of the Orthodox Church began to weaken markedly.
continue
▪ It also predicts that real commodity prices will continue to weaken, with another average decline of 2 percent projected for 1988.
▪ Discounting is expected to continue to weaken earnings into the second quarter.
strengthen
▪ Another was that generous outside help would strengthen, not weaken, Mr Yeltsin's position at home.
▪ Graduated lines can strengthen or weaken an arrow.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ By 1945, the country's power was weakening considerably.
▪ Hartman was weakened by flu, but still managed to play.
▪ Her long illness has weakened her so much that she has difficulty walking.
▪ Some parents are worried that public education weakens the family's influence.
▪ The city's defences had been weakened by enemy shelling.
▪ The explosion severely weakened the foundations of the house.
▪ The soldiers' morale was beginning to weaken.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Birthday shows us that weakening is inevitable, but not always fatal.
▪ By launching the new forum Mr Heseltine is getting his own back on the now weakened Mr Lamont.
▪ Inside the house the heat weakened only slightly.
▪ It is a manner of speech now increasingly rare in the world, faded and ever weakening like a lost radio signal.
▪ It seems, too, that traditional values that prescribe a life of domesticity are weakening.
▪ Pleasure, a rarity at any rate, only serves to weaken one; what one really needs is stamina and discipline.
▪ That is one reason so many Republicans want him to remain in place even in a weakened condition.
▪ Trying to please everyone inevitably leads to compromise, and that in turn weakens individual expression.