Something that used to hold now holds less — not broken, not gone, just less able to bear what it used to bear.
某個東西原本撐得住，現在撐的力氣被抽掉了一些。weaken 不是「壞掉」也不是「消失」，它描述的是一個過程——強度往下掉。可以想像一條原本繃緊的繩子開始鬆、一堵原本站直的牆開始有裂縫：東西還在，但它能承受的份量變少了。這個字的另一個特點是它兩邊都能用：可以是「你去削弱它」，也可以是「它自己變弱」，同一個字不換形。
From the word’s history
weak + -en, the suffix that turns an adjective into ‘make/become that way’ (harden, soften, widen) — so weaken is literally ‘make or become weak’.
weaken = weak（弱的）+ -en（使…變成…／變成…）。-en 這個字尾在英文裡專門把形容詞變成「使之如此」的動詞：hard→harden、soft→soften、dark→darken、wide→widen。所以 weaken 字面就是「使變弱／變弱」，核心畫面幾乎是從構詞直接讀出來的。認得這個 -en，你就能一次拿下一整組字。
Wiktionary, entry ‘weaken’ (from weak + -en).
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原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
weakenverb/ˈwikən/
- 1
To make weaker or less strong.
- weaken a bond
- weaken a joint
- 2
To become weaker or less strong.
- Over the years my enthusiasm for the job has weakened.
- My friends, we are confronted with a serious situation. But it is typical of the security problems of the world today. Powerful and aggressive forces are constantly probing, now here, now there, to see whether the free world is weakened. In the face of this, there are no easy choices available. It is misleading for anyone to imply that there are. However, the present situation, though serious, is by no means desperate or hopeless.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。