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Detriment vs Scourge - What's the difference?

detriment | scourge | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between detriment and scourge

is that detriment is harm, hurt, damage while scourge is a source of persistent trouble such as pestilence that causes pain and suffering or widespread destruction.

As a verb scourge is

to strike with a scourge, to flog.

detriment

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Harm, hurt, damage.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1872 , author=Fyodor Dostoyevsky , title=The Possessed , chapter=7 citation , passage=“But marriage in secret, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch — a fatal secret. I receive money from you, and I'm suddenly asked the question, 'What's that money for?' My hands are tied; I cannot answer to the detriment of my sister, to the detriment of the family honour.”}}
  • (UK, obsolete) A charge made to students and barristers for incidental repairs of the rooms they occupy.
  • Usage notes

    * Often used in the form "to someone's detriment".

    Synonyms

    * harm * hurt * illfare * damage

    Antonyms

    * benefit

    scourge

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) A source of persistent trouble such as pestilence that causes pain and suffering or widespread destruction.
  • A means to inflict such pain or destruction.
  • * Shakespeare
  • What scourge for perjury / Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty
  • , date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 ([…]): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}
  • A whip, often of leather.
  • * Chapman
  • Up to coach then goes / The observed maid, takes both the scourge and reins.

    Verb

  • To strike with a scourge , to flog.
  • See also

    * (pedia)