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Plight
Definitions
- 1 A dire or unfortunate situation.
"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 Responsibility for ensuing consequences; risk; danger; peril. dialectal
- 3 A network; a plait; a fold; rarely a garment. obsolete
"Many a folded plight."
- 4 a solemn pledge of fidelity wordnet
- 5 A (neutral) condition or state. archaic
"although hee live in as good plight and health as may be, yet he chafeth, he scoldeth, he brawleth, he fighteth, he sweareth, and biteth, as the most boistrous and tempestuous master of France[…]."
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- 6 An instance of danger or peril; a dangerous moment or situation. dialectal
- 7 a situation from which extrication is difficult especially an unpleasant or trying one wordnet
- 8 Good health. obsolete
"All wayes shee sought him to restore to plight, / With herbs, with charms, with counsel, and with teares[…]."
- 9 Blame; culpability; fault; wrong-doing; sin; crime. dialectal
- 10 One's office; duty; charge. dialectal
- 11 That which is exposed to risk; that which is plighted or pledged; security; a gage; a pledge. archaic
"Haply, when I shall wed, That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry Half my love with him, half my care and duty"
- 1 To expose to risk; to pledge. archaic, transitive
- 2 To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait. obsolete
"ſhe wore a plighted Garmend of divers colours,"
- 3 promise solemnly and formally wordnet
- 4 Specifically, to pledge (one's troth etc.) as part of a marriage ceremony. transitive
- 5 give to in marriage wordnet
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- 6 To promise (oneself) to someone, or to do something. reflexive
"I ask what I have done to deserve it, one daughter hobnobbing with radicals and the other planning to plight herself to a criminal."
Etymology
From Middle English plit (“fold, wrinkle, bad situation”), conflation of Middle English pliht, plight (“risky promise, peril”) (from Old English pliht "danger, risk"; see Etymology 2) and Anglo-Norman plit, plyte (“fold, condition”), from Old French pleit (“condition, manner of folding”) (from Vulgar Latin *plictum, from Latin plicitum (“fold”)).
From Middle English plight (“risk, danger”), from Old English pliht (“peril, risk, danger, damage, plight”), from Proto-West Germanic *plihti (“care, responsibility, duty”). A suffixed form of the root represented by Old English pleoh (“risk, danger, hurt, peril"; also "responsibility”) and plēon (“to endanger, risk”). Akin to Old English plihtan (“to endanger, compromise”). Cognate with Scots plicht (“responsibility, plight”), Dutch plicht, Low German Plicht (“duty”), German Pflicht (“duty”), Danish pligt (“duty”), Yiddish פֿליכט (flikht). More at pledge.
From Middle English plight (“risk, danger”), from Old English pliht (“peril, risk, danger, damage, plight”), from Proto-West Germanic *plihti (“care, responsibility, duty”). A suffixed form of the root represented by Old English pleoh (“risk, danger, hurt, peril"; also "responsibility”) and plēon (“to endanger, risk”). Akin to Old English plihtan (“to endanger, compromise”). Cognate with Scots plicht (“responsibility, plight”), Dutch plicht, Low German Plicht (“duty”), German Pflicht (“duty”), Danish pligt (“duty”), Yiddish פֿליכט (flikht). More at pledge.
From Middle English plyghten, plyȝten, pleyȝten, pleiten, pliten, from the noun (see below).
From Middle English pliȝt, plight, plyt, pleit, from Anglo-Norman pleit (“pleat, fold”). More at plait.
See also for "plight"
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Unscramble this word: plight