"Weather-beaten" describes something that has spent years outside and shows it. The weather has been hitting it — sun, wind, rain, salt, cold — and the surface is now rough, faded, cracked or worn. You use it for houses, boats, fences, signs, wooden doors, old coats, and above all for a person's face.

Notice the picture inside the word: the weather has "beaten" it, hit it again and again, like a slow fight. Nothing broke in a single storm; the marks built up over years. That is why the word almost always suggests age and long exposure, and why it feels solid and physical.

Here is the part learners miss. Used about a face, "weather-beaten" is usually admiring, or at least respectful. A weather-beaten face belongs to a fisherman, a farmer, a mountain guide — somebody who works outdoors, whose brown lined skin is the record of a hard, real life. English readers hear toughness and experience there, not ugliness. If you want to say a face simply looks old and unattractive, this is the wrong word.

About buildings and objects the feeling is more mixed, though often still fond: a weather-beaten cottage on the coast sounds charming, while a weather-beaten sign just sounds neglected. Context decides. The word is common in descriptive writing and travel writing, less so in casual chat, and it is normally written with the hyphen.