EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR WEIR
The weir had been erected to pen the Chenook salmon from going further up-stream.
What could make the river run at this pace—a weir—or a waterfall?
"Let me whisper in your ear," said Miss Desmond, loud above the chatter of the weir.
He yelled to me not to leave him, but the weir had give me my bearings, and I was bound for my power-boat.
One day lately, when the water was low, he offered to cross the weir at Dingleford.
The water shut in by a dam or weir by the side of a river for securing fish.
I registered you as Miss Weir, that name being the first to occur to me.
Won't you ask me to be seated, and hear what I wish to say, Miss Weir?
First, we'll go to Hardy's weir and take in a lot of herring for bait.
Weir, I'm sorry enough I introduced you, if you are going to take it that way.
WORD ORIGIN
Old English wer "dam, fence, enclosure," especially one for catching fish (related to werian "dam up"), from Proto-Germanic *warjanan (cf. Old Norse ver, Old Frisian and Middle Dutch were, Dutch weer, Old High German wari, German Wehr "defense, protection," Gothic warjan "to defend, protect"), from PIE *wer- "to cover, shut" (cf. Sanskrit vatah "enclosure," vrnoti "covers, wraps, shuts;" Lithuanian uzveriu "to shut, to close;" Old Persian *pari-varaka "protective;" Latin (op)erire "to cover;" Old Church Slavonic vora "sealed, closed," vreti "shut;" Old Irish feronn "field," properly "enclosed land").