Weed
A weed was an undesirable plant in a garden. To compare something to a weed was to imply that it proliferated rapidly and/or was hard to eradicate. Weeds could be controlled with herbicides. (; )

Boothby, the groundskeeper of Starfleet Academy in the 24th century, preferred to pull weeds by hand rather than use an herbicide. ()

In 2371, Furel told Lupaza that he had seen better weeds than the crops she grew. ()

When Quark attempted to hire Elim Garak as an assassin in late 2372, Garak replied that he had been a gardener and that his services were available should Quark need something weeded. ()

In early 2374,  B'Elanna Torres compared removing Borg technology from the plasma intake manifolds of  to pulling weeds. ()

In 2399, William T. Riker told Jean-Luc Picard that Antarean basil grew like weeds around his house. ()

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