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Dire vs Plightful - What's the difference?

dire | plightful |

As adjectives the difference between dire and plightful

is that dire is warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous while plightful is full of risk or danger; risky; dangerous; perilous.

dire

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous.
  • Requiring action to prevent bad consequences: urgent, pressing.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= It's a gas , passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.
  • Expressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal; horrible; terrible; lamentable.
  • (label) Bad in quality, awful, terrible.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 10, author=Arindam Rej, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Norwich 4-2 Newcastle , passage=A second Norwich goal in four minutes arrived after some dire Newcastle defending. Gosling gave the ball away with a sloppy back-pass, allowing Crofts to curl in a cross that the unmarked Morison powered in with a firm, 12-yard header.}}

    Quotations

    * (English Citations of "dire")

    Derived terms

    * direful * direly * direness * dire sisters * dire straits * dire wolf

    See also

    * voir dire

    Anagrams

    * * * ----

    plightful

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) plihtful, equivalent to .

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Full of risk or danger; risky; dangerous; perilous.
  • *1965 , Francis X. Corrigan, Middle English readings in translation :
    • This is their doom that here in sin Lie and their sins will not cease; But would they think about Judgment Day, It behooves them to leave their plightful play.
  • *2005 , Curt Bissonette, Noble Stone :
    • Athelstan said, in a much more serious way, “It is truly a plightful time for the Angles, and it always has been, as far back as I can remember. The Northmen kill or at least mar all that they touch.
  • Full of plight; plighted; pledged; devoted.
  • *1866 , Henry J. Verlander, The bride of Rougemont :
    • She liv'd and lov'd.?I wedded two. 'The Devil!'?Yes. What could I do? To her I ow'd my plightful vow, To Ruth, my life, and freedom now.

    Etymology 2

    From .

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Indicating plight; dire; grim; grievous.
  • *2009 , Dr. Ulas Basar Gezgin, Vietnam & Asia in Flux, 2008 :
    • For example, poor villagers can destroy the forests because of their plightful conditions.
  • Pitiful.
  • *1972 , Commonweal: Volume 96:
    • In some surreal and inevitable moment, some jingle-jangle wee hour of morning, they may even have shared billing on the same campus stage: joined harmonics and harmonics, strummed out some plightful version of "Musee des Beaux Arts" [...]