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Trouble vs Plight - What's the difference?

trouble | plight |

In transitive now _ rare terms the difference between trouble and plight

is that trouble is to disturb, stir up, agitate (a medium, especially water) while plight is to expose to risk; to pledge.

In transitive terms the difference between trouble and plight

is that trouble is in weaker sense: to bother; to annoy, pester while plight is specifically, to pledge (one's troth etc.) as part of a marriage ceremony.

trouble

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A distressful or dangerous situation.
  • A difficulty, problem, condition, or action contributing to such a situation.
  • * (John Milton)
  • Lest the fiend some new trouble raise.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • Foul whisperings are abroad; unnatural deeds / Do breed unnatural troubles .
  • A violent occurrence or event.
  • * , chapter=7
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=“I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble . It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. What I won't stand is to have them togs called a livery. […]”}}
  • Efforts taken or expended, typically beyond the normal required.
  • * Bryant
  • She never took the trouble to close them.
  • *1881 , :
  • *:Indeed, by the report of our elders, this nervous preparation for old age is only trouble thrown away.
  • A malfunction.
  • Liability to punishment; conflict with authority.
  • (mining) A fault or interruption in a stratum.
  • Usage notes

    * Verbs often used with "trouble": make, spell, stir up, ask for, etc.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * ask for trouble * distrouble * double trouble * engine trouble * get into trouble * in trouble * teething troubles * trouble and strife * troubled * trouble-free * trouble in paradise * troublemaker/trouble maker * troubler * The Troubles * troubleshoot * troubleshooter * troubleshooting * troublesome * trouble spot

    See also

    * for uses and meaning of trouble collocated with these words.

    Verb

    (troubl)
  • To disturb, stir up, agitate (a medium, especially water).
  • * Bible, John v. 4
  • An angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water.
  • * Milton
  • God looking forth will trouble all his host.
  • To mentally distress; to cause (someone) to be anxious or perplexed.
  • * Bible, John xii. 27
  • Now is my soul troubled .
  • * Shakespeare
  • Take the boy to you; he so troubles me / 'Tis past enduring.
  • * John Locke
  • Never trouble yourself about those faults which age will cure.
  • In weaker sense: to bother; to annoy, pester.
  • Question 3 in the test is troubling me.
    I will not trouble you to deliver the letter.
  • To take pains to do something.
  • * 1946 , (Bertrand Russell), History of Western Philosophy , I.26:
  • Why trouble about the future? It is wholly uncertain.

    Statistics

    *

    plight

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) ).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A dire or unfortunate situation.
  • *{{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. ¶ Gosling's plight worsened when he was soon shown a red card for a foul on Martin.}}
  • *2005 , Lesley Brown, translating Plato, Sophist , :
  • *: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.
  • *, II.8:
  • *: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 .
  • (obsolete) Good health.
  • *1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.7:
  • *:All wayes shee sought him to restore to plight , / With herbs, with charms, with counsel, and with teares.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) . More at pledge.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Responsibility for ensuing consequences; risk; danger; peril.
  • An instance of danger or peril; a dangerous moment or situation.
  • Blame; culpability; fault; wrong-doing; sin; crime.
  • One's office; duty; charge.
  • (archaic) That which is exposed to risk; that which is plighted or pledged; security; a gage; a pledge.
  • * Shakespeare
  • that lord whose hand must take my plight
    Derived terms
    * (l) * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To expose to risk; to pledge.
  • Specifically, to pledge (one's troth etc.) as part of a marriage ceremony.
  • (reflexive) To promise (oneself) to someone, or to do something.
  • * 1992 , Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety , Harper Perennial 2007, p. 226:
  • I ask what I have done to deserve it, one daughter hobnobbing with radicals and the other planning to plight herself to a criminal.
    Derived terms
    * (l)

    Etymology 3

    Through (etyl), from (etyl) and Danish flette are probably unrelated.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait.
  • * Milton
  • A plighted garment of divers colors.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A network; a plait; a fold; rarely a garment.
  • * Spenser
  • Many a folded plight .