Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[missdaredevil]

When a new addition(baby) to the family arrives, the cameras pop out like weeds.

People snap a lot photos of the baby? But doesn't weed have a negative connotation?

Thanks

[Harmony]

It's true that most people don't like weeds, but the fact that they grow so quickly and spread so readily makes them useful in similes such as "growing like weeds", "spreading like weeds", and "popping up like weeds". It's hard to think of another word that could easily be used in this way. In your example the negative connotation has been ignored, but in most others a slight amount of negativity is implied.

Examples:

My two boys are growing like weeds! (A parent complains about the speed with which the boys outgrow their clothes.)

After he left the company, rumors of an affair began spreading like weeds. (Rumors are unverified information so there is a mildly negative connotation.)

With farmers selling off their land, new housing developments have been popping up like weeds. (A comment typically made by someone with concerns about the rate of development and the loss of farmland.)