A weed is a plant that is not only in the wrong place, but intends to stay.
I appreciate the misunderstanding I have had with Nature over my perennial border. I think it is a flower garden; she thinks it is a meadow lacking grass, and tries to correct the error.
It's the flock, the grove, that matters. Our responsibility is to species, not to specimens; to communities, not to individuals.
A digging fork is a stout, short-handled tool with four flat tines about a foot long.... for weeding I use it delicately to nudge the soil loose from roots without breaking them.