weakly

Etymology 1

From weak + -ly; compare Old English wāclīċ (“weak; ignoble; mean”), and Old Norse veikligr (“weakly; sick”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *waikalīkaz (“weakly; weak”).

adj

  1. Frail, sickly or of a delicate constitution; weak.
    I lay in weakly case and confined to my bed for four months before I was able to rise and health returned to me. 1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 18
    I'd always been but weakly, / And my baby was just born; / A neighbour minded her by day, / I minded her till morn. 1889, WB Yeats, The Ballad of Moll Magee
    "Oh, a huge crab," Jacob murmured—and begins his journey on weakly legs on the sandy bottom. 1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob's Room

Etymology 2

From Middle English weykly, equivalent to weak + -ly. Compare Old High German weihlīcho (“weakly”), Middle English wocliche, wokli, wacliche (both from Proto-Germanic *waikalīkō).

adv

  1. With little strength or force.

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