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Glite Dictionary
😔 A difficult situation 🤝 To promise seriously
to plight

to plight

1 7.0
To make a serious promise to be loyal, often in marriage
  • verb
  • /plaɪt/
  • Archaic
translation icon : prometer
  • The kiss was brief and gentle, scarcely more than the formality that concludes a wedding, yet as striking in its impact as though they had this minute plighted a troth.

Examples

  • More balance: "right" and "left"; also, active ("did ... plight") and passive ("was dight").

    Fiction book (1996)

  • And quick berowne hath plighted faith to me.

    Love's Labour's Lost (2000)

  • Is this thy plighted faith?

    The Libertine (2004)

  • When this system is complete, we will be able to go to a swamp, or a desert, some place broken, and plighted.

    Tesla (2020)

  • By this sign, your troth be plighted.

    Prince Valiant (1954)

  • "By this sacred emblem I plight my troth."

    The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)

  • Think how many plighted their troth to socialism.

    Academic text (2002)

  • But the more pressing question is whether liberals ought to plight their troths to a particular good or ordered set of goods, to an end or set of ends the realization or achievement of which is properly the objective that liberalism should pursue.

    Academic text (1999)

  • "By this sacred emblem, I plight my troth to love and honor you for all of my days."

  • As they exchanged rings, they plighted their vows to remain loyal to each other forever.

Synonyms

to vow
vsto plight
  • Formal
209 3.5

To make a serious promise to do or not do something

is a general solemn pledge used broadly beyond strictly religious cases
to covenant
vsto plight
  • Formal
1 8.1

To make a formal written promise with another person or group

is a personal solemn promise rather than an institutional legal pact
to handfast
vsto plight
  • Archaic
9.9

To promise to marry in a simple old ceremony

is a broad serious pledge not restricted to marriage promises

Antonyms

to break
∞ 1.0

To stop an activity or end a habit

to renounce
  • Formal
69 6.3

To give up a right, belief, job, or position officially

How Serious

to swear
  • Formal
∞ 4.6
vow
  • Formal
279 3.4
to plight
  • Archaic
1 7.0
pledge
206 3.7
to undertake
190 4.2
promise
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

plight infinitive
plighting present participle
plights third person singular
plighted past
plighted past participle

Etymology

The verb plight keeps the old sense of 'to pledge' or make a solemn promise, as in the old phrase 'plighted their troth' at weddings, so plight still suggests a formal, serious promise today.