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Dearth vs Pang - What's the difference?

dearth | pang |

As nouns the difference between dearth and pang

is that dearth is a period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine while pang is paroxysm of extreme physical pain or anguish; sudden and transitory agony; throe.

As a verb pang is

to torment; to torture; to cause to have great pain or suffering.

dearth

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (rfc-sense) A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.
  • (by extension) Scarcity; a lack or short supply.
  • * 1608 , William Shakespeare, King Lear :
  • I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily: as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth , dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what.
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  • (obsolete) Dearness; the quality of being rare or costly.
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  • Synonyms

    * (period when food is rare) famine, shortage * (scarcity) paucity, scarcity

    Anagrams

    * * *

    pang

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (often, pluralized) paroxysm of extreme physical pain or anguish; sudden and transitory agony; throe
  • * 1591 , , Henry VI, Part II , act 3, sc. 3,
  • See, how the pangs of death do make him grin!
  • * 1888 , , "The Nightingale and the Rose" in The Happy Prince and Other Tales ,
  • So the Nightingale pressed closer against the thorn, and the thorn touched her heart, and a fierce pang of pain shot through her.
  • (often, pluralized) A sharp, sudden feeling of a mental or emotional nature, as of joy or sorrow
  • * 1867 , , The Guardian Angel , ch. 7,
  • He was startled with a piece of information which gave him such an exquisite pang of delight that he could hardly keep the usual quiet of his demeanor.

    Verb

  • to torment; to torture; to cause to have great pain or suffering
  • * 1918 , , "On Unanswering Letters" in Mince Pie ,
  • It panged him so to say good-bye when he had to leave.