Plight

English

Noun

Plight (plural Plights)

1. (obsolete) Danger, risk.
2. (archaic) That which is exposed to risk; that which is plighted or pledged; security; a gage; a pledge.

Verb

Plight (third-person singular simple present Plights, present participle Plighting, simple past and past participle Plighted)

1. (transitive, now rare) To expose to risk; to pledge.
2. (transitive) Specifically, to pledge (one's troth etc.) as part of a marriage ceremony.
3. (reflexive) To promise (oneself) to someone, or to do something.
   • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p. 226:

     I ask what I have done to deserve it, one daughter hobnobbing with radicals and the other planning to plight herself to a criminal.

Noun

Plight (plural Plights)

1. A dire or unfortunate situation.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 243c.

     Though we say we are quite clear about it and understand when someone uses the expression, unlike that other expression, maybe we're in the same plight with regard to them both.

2. Condition; state; — risk, or exposure to danger, often being implied; as, a luckless plight.

Verb

Plight (third-person singular simple present Plights, present participle Plighting, simple past and past participle Plighted)

1. (obsolete) To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait.

Noun

Plight (plural Plights)

1. (obsolete) A network; a plait; a fold; rarely a garment.

Adjectives for Plight

lamentable; forsaken; sorry; ill; admirable evil; pathetic; patient; chronic; grievous shameful; pitiable; dolorous; sad; doleful sorrowful; unfortunate.

Verbs for Plight

betray—; exploit—; favor—; foster—; muse on—; reduce to—; swear to—; vow to—; — alarms; —assures; —binds; —contracts; —depresses; —guarantees; —puzzles; — secures; —shocks.

Thesaurus

adverse circumstances, adversity, affiance, affliction, aggravation, annoyance, assurance, assure, avouch, avouchment, baffle, bafflement, bearings, become engaged, betroth, bewilderment, bind, blight, bother, box, breakers ahead, bummer, cardhouse, care, case, catch-22, cause for alarm, circumstance, circumstances, clutch, complication, condition, confoundment, confusion, contract, contract an engagement, corner, countersign, covenant, crisis, cross, crunch, curse, danger, dangerous ground, difficulties, difficulty, dilemma, discomposure, disconcert, disconcertedness, disconcertion, disconcertment, disturbance, downer, embarrassing position, embarrassment, emergency, endangerment, engage, engagement, enigma, estate, extremity, faith, fine how-do-you-do, fix, footing, gaping chasm, gathering clouds, guarantee, hard knocks, hard life, hard lot, hardcase, hardship, hazard, hell to pay, hobble, hole, hot water, house of cards, how-do-you-do, imbroglio, imperilment, irritation, jam, jeopardy, location, lot, make a promise, menace, mess, mix, modality, mode, morass, mystery, nonplus, oath, parlous straits, parole, pass, peril, perplexity, perturbation, pickle, pinch, place, pledge, position, posture, pother, predicament, pressure, pretty pass, pretty pickle, pretty predicament, problem, promise, publish the banns, puzzle, puzzlement, quagmire, quandary, quicksand, rank, riddle, rigor, risk, rocks ahead, scrape, sea of troubles, situation, slough, solemn declaration, spot, squeeze, standing, state, station, status, stew, sticky wicket, storm clouds, strait, straits, stress, stress of life, swamp, swear, thin ice, threat, tight spot, tight squeeze, tightrope, trial, tribulation, tricky spot, troth, trouble, troubles, unassuredness, underwrite, unholy mess, upset, vale of tears, vicissitude, vouch, vow, warrant, warranty, word, word of honor

Pronunciation

• enPR: plīt, IPA: /plaɪt/, SAMPA: /plaIt/

• Audio (US)

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  Rhymes: -aɪt

Etymology 1

Middle English plight "risk, danger" from Old English pliht, representing a suffixed form of the root found in pleoh (“risk, danger, hurt, peril"; also "responsibility”), plēon (“to endanger, risk”). Akin to Old English plihtan (“to endanger, compromise”). Cognate with Dutch plicht, Low German plicht (“duty”), German Pflicht (“duty”). More at pledge.

Etymology 2

Middle English plit (“fold, wrinkle, bad situation”), conflation of Middle English pliht, plight (“risky promise, peril”) (from Old English pliht "danger, risk") and Anglo-Norman plit, plyte (“fold, condition”) from Old French pleit (“condition, manner of folding”) (from Vulgar Latin *plictum from Latin plicitum (“fold”)).

Etymology 3

Through Old French from Latin plectare. German flechten (“to plait”) and Danish flette are probably unrelated.

Translations

Noun

that which is exposed to risk

Noun

a dire or misfortunate situation

Finnish: ahdinko (fi)

Norwegian: knipe (no) c., kinkig (no), situasjon (no)

a network; a plait; a fold; rarely a garment

condition; state; — risk