weird Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun fate personified; any one of the three Weird Sisters
    Wyrd.
  2. adjective satellite suggesting the operation of supernatural influences
    eldritch; uncanny; unearthly.
    • an eldritch screech
    • the three weird sisters
    • stumps...had uncanny shapes as of monstrous creatures"- John Galsworthy
    • an unearthly light
    • he could hear the unearthly scream of some curlew piercing the din"- Henry Kingsley
  3. adjective satellite strikingly odd or unusual; some weird effect of shadow"- Bram Stoker
    • some trick of the moonlight

WordNet

Weird noun
Etymology
OE. wirde, werde, AS. wyrd fate, fortune, one of the Fates, fr. weoran to be, to become; akin to OS. wurd fate, OHG. wurt, Icel. urr. 143. See Worth to become.
Definitions
  1. Fate; destiny; one of the Fates, or Norns; also, a prediction. Obs. or Scot.
  2. A spell or charm. Obs. or Scot. Sir W. Scott.
Weird adjective
Definitions
  1. Of or pertaining to fate; concerned with destiny.
  2. Of or pertaining to witchcraft; caused by, or suggesting, magical influence; supernatural; unearthly; wild; as, a weird appearance, look, sound, etc.
    Myself too had weird seizures. Tennyson.
    Those sweet, low tones, that seemed like a weird incantation. Longfellow.
    G. Douglas. ✍ Shakespeare uses the term for the three witches in Macbeth.
    The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land. Shak.
Weird transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To foretell the fate of; to predict; to destine to. Scot. Jamieson.

Webster 1913