Noun

(en noun)

(obsolete) Ability to harm; someone's dominion or power to harm or penalise. See In one's danger, below.

"You stand within his danger , do you not?" (Shakespeare, ''Merchant of Venice'', 4:1:180)

* Robynson (More's Utopia)

Covetousness of gains hath brought [them] in danger of this statute.

(obsolete) Liability.

* 1526 , Bible , tr. William Tyndale, Matthew V:

Thou shalt not kyll. Whosoever shall kyll, shalbe in daunger of iudgement.

(obsolete) Difficulty; sparingness.

(Chaucer)

(obsolete) Coyness; disdainful behavior.

(Chaucer)

(obsolete) A place where one is in the hands of the enemy.

Exposure to liable harm.

"Danger is a good teacher, and makes apt scholars" ((William Hazlitt), ''Table talk'').

An instance or cause of liable harm.

"Two territorial questions..unsettled..each of which was a positive danger to the peace of Europe" (''Times'', 5 Sept. 3/2).

Mischief.

"We put a Sting in him, / That at his will he may doe danger with" (Shakespeare, ''Julius Caesar'', 2:1:17).

Noun

(en noun)

The way in which something is positioned vis-à-vis its surroundings.

* 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows) :

...he being naturally an underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of Badger's house exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the Rat, who slept every night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on a breezy river, naturally felt the atmosphere still and oppressive.

The place in which something is situated; a location.

* 1833 , Thomas Hibbert and Robert Buist, The American Flower Garden Directory , page 142:

[Hibíscus] speciòsus is the most splendid, and deserves a situation in every garden.

Position or status with regard to conditions and circumstances.

The combination of circumstances at a given moment; a state of affairs.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.}}

(UK, dated) A position of employment; a post.

* 1913 , , (Sons and Lovers) , Penguin 2006, page 78:

When he was nineteen, he suddenly left the 'Co-op' office, and got a situation in Nottingham.

* 1946 , Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, Milt Gabler, :

You take a morning paper from the top of the stack

And read the situations from the front to the back

The only job that's open need a man with a knack

So put it right back in the rack Jack.

A difficult or unpleasant set of circumstances; a problem.

Boss, we've got a situation here...