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Agony vs Plight - What's the difference?

agony | plight |

As nouns the difference between agony and plight

is that agony is violent contest or striving while plight is a dire or unfortunate situation.

As a verb plight is

to expose to risk; to pledge.

agony

English

Noun

(agonies)
  • Violent contest or striving.
    • The world is convulsed by the agonies of great nations. —.
  • Pain so extreme as to cause writhing or contortions of the body, similar to those made in the athletic contests in Greece; and hence, extreme pain of mind or body; anguish; paroxysm of grief; specifically, the sufferings of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.
    • Being in an agony he prayed more earnestly. —Luke xxii. 44.
  • Paroxysm of joy; keen emotion.
    • With cries and agonies of wild delight. —.
  • The last struggle of life; death struggle.

    • Synonyms

    * anguish, torment, throe, distress, pang, suffering * See also

    Antonyms

    * (extreme pain) ecstasy

    Related terms

    * agon * agonist, antagonist, protagonist * agonistes

    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 .