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Rachel
How many meanings does“in the weeds” have?
I saw some examples and it seems “in the weeds” has different meanings like someone is in the weeds; someone says too much and it's annoying; somebody is in a mess etc.
What does “in the weeds” mean? Please help me if you know it. Thanks!
Feb 28, 2020 11:34 AM
Comments · 3
1
"In the weeds" is used in the restaurant industry to mean that a worker (waitress/waiter, busboy, cook, etc.) has too much work to to and is falling behind. <em>("Two of our waitresses called in sick today: I started my shift in the weeds and it just got worse all night.")</em>
"Getting/going/delving into the weeds" means going into details, usually too deeply. <em>("I looked up something up on the internet and wound up spending half the night reading all sorts of details about it. I just kept going deeper and deeper into the weeds.)</em>
Of course, a "weed" is a plant growing in a place where it is not wanted, and "to weed" is to remove such plants from such places.
"To weed out" is to remove unwanted items from some group of items. <em>("I went through my sock drawer and weeded out all the socks with holes in them.")</em>
"Widow's weeds" is a term for the mourning dress worn by widow in the Victorian times. <em>("In</em> 'Gone With The Wind,' <em>Scarlett O'Hara always looks charming and attractive, even when dressed in widow's weeds.)</em>
"Weedy" can mean thin and scraggly, and is said of horses or people. <em>("He had a pale and weedy look about him, as if he had never had quite enough food to justify his full height.")</em>
The City of Weed has a population of approximately 3,000, and is located in the US state of California. <em>("'O.K.,' said George. 'An' you ain't gonna do no bad things like you done in Weed, neither.' This quote is from the novel </em>Of Mice and Men<em>, John Steinbeck, 1937 -- note: this quote reflects English as spoken by uneducated farm workers in the 1930's.)</em>
February 28, 2020
1
As I understand it, the idiom 'in the weeds' only has one basic meaning: it means being entangled in the midst something of something that's hard to get out of. The image is quite obvious: imagine trying to swim in a river which is full of weeds.
It's used in two contexts:
You might say that you don't want to 'get into the weeds', meaning that you don't want to get bogged down in the complexities of a difficult problem. This is equivalent to avoiding the areas of water that has weeds growing in it.
Or you could say that you are 'in the weeds' if you are very busy, tied up with doing a number of tasks that you can't leave. This is the equivalent of being stuck in the part of the river which is full of weeds.
As you can see, the basic meaning is the same.
NB I'd like to point out that this idiom is as 'foreign' to me as it is to you. 'In the weeds' is an American idiom which I understand but don't use. Am happy to be corrected if any 'native' speakers think I'm wrong about its usage.
February 28, 2020
1
I hadn't heard this expression, so I've looked it up. It appears to be an American idiom.
Here are the results :
<em style="color: grey;">Prepositional phrase</em>
<ol><li>(idiomatic) <a href="https://www.yourdictionary.com/Immersed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(57, 149, 217);">Immersed</a> or <a href="https://www.yourdictionary.com/entangled" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(57, 149, 217);">entangled</a> in <a href="https://www.yourdictionary.com/details" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(57, 149, 217);">details</a> or <a href="https://www.yourdictionary.com/complexities" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(57, 149, 217);">complexities</a>.</li><li>(idiomatic, restaurant slang, of a cook or server) <a href="https://www.yourdictionary.com/Overwhelmed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(57, 149, 217);">Overwhelmed</a> with diners' orders.</li></ol><em>'(deep) in the weeds'</em>
1. Of a restaurant worker, completely overwhelmed with diners' orders and unable to keep up with the pace.
<em>I was all alone waiting tables during Sunday brunch, so I got in the weeds almost immediately.</em>
<em>Even with a full staff, Friday was so busy that we were deep in the weeds for most of the night.</em>
2. Overwhelmed with problems, troubles, or difficulties.
<em>We were starting to get deep in the weeds on the lead up to the software's unveiling, but we managed to make up some lost ground in the last couple of weeks.</em>
<em>My relationship with Joanna has been in the weeds lately.</em>
3. Totally immersed in or preoccupied with the details or complexities (of something).
<em>I'd like to come out tonight, but I'm deep in the weeds with my thesis.</em>
<em>'in the weeds' </em> US informal
<em>with so many problems or so much work that you are finding it difficult to deal with something:</em>
'We're down in the weeds here with customer service.'
'The cooks were so deep in the weeds, they were threatening to walk out.'
<em>concerned with small details, often when this prevents you from understanding what is important:</em>
'He's one of those rare people who can get down in the weeds and work on the details, but still see the big picture.'
'I don't want to get too lost in the weeds, but there is a margin of error.'
February 28, 2020
Rachel
Language Skills
Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Cantonese), English, Spanish
Learning Language
English, Spanish
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