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plight

Pronunciation: /plaɪt/

The English word “plight” has 13 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A dire or unfortunate situation.
  2. A (neutral) condition or state.
  3. Good health.
  4. Responsibility for ensuing consequences; risk; danger; peril.
  5. An instance of danger or peril; a dangerous moment or situation.
  6. Blame; culpability; fault; wrong-doing; sin; crime.
  7. One's office; duty; charge.
  8. That which is exposed to risk; that which is plighted or pledged; security; a gage; a pledge.
  9. A network; a plait; a fold; rarely a garment.

verb

  1. To nominate an object of value as a security against a promise; to pledge something, as one's faith, trust, allegiance, or something symbolic of this.
  2. Specifically, to pledge (one's troth etc.) as part of a marriage ceremony.
  3. To promise (oneself) to someone, or to do something.
  4. To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait.

Etymology

From Middle English plit (“fold, wrinkle, bad situation”), conflation of Middle English pliht, plight (“risky promise, peril”) (from Old English pliht "danger, risk"; see Etymology 2) and Anglo-Norman plit, plyte (“fold, condition”), from Old French pleit (“condition, manner of folding”) (from Vulgar Latin *plictum, from Latin plicitum (“fold”)).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.