This week’s theme
Words with many meanings

This week’s words
dobber
bruit
cameo
pillbox
plight

This week’s comments
AWADmail 992

Next week’s theme
Metaphors

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(plyt)

MEANING:

noun:	1. An unfortunate situation.
	2. A pledge.
	3. A fold, wrinkle, braid, etc. Also called plait or pleat.
verb tr.:	1. To become engaged to marry.
	2. To promise.
	3. To fold, wrinkle, braid, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

For noun/verb 1, 2: From Old English pliht (danger).
For noun/verb 3: From Anglo-Norman plit (fold, wrinkle, condition), from Latin plicare (to fold).
Earliest documented use: 450.

USAGE:

“Edvin breaks down and starts to cry; he hates the life as a tradesman that has been mapped out for him, and his parents are not sympathetic to his plight.”
Hilton Als; Dream Lover; The New Yorker; Feb 15, 2021.

“Puts on her silken vestments white,
And tricks her hair in lovely plight.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Christabel; John Murray Press; 1816.

“Effie supposed that once you were engaged, had agreed to be on the same team, you were no longer able to kvetch to your friends about your partner’s shortcomings -- that sort of whinging suddenly became disloyal once you’d both plighted your troth.”
Harriet Walker; The Wedding Night; Random House; 2021.

“House Republicans ousted Cheney from leadership ranks and, in doing so, further plighted its troth^* to Trump.”
Scot Lehigh; GOP Leaders Can’t Finesse the Party’s Trump Problem; The Boston Globe (Massachusetts); May 19, 2021.
^*troth: loyalty; word; promise; truth

See more usage examples of plight in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: