plightful

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English plightful, plihtful, equivalent to plight +‎ -ful.

Adjective

plightful (comparative more plightful, superlative most plightful)

1. Full of risk or danger; risky; dangerous; perilous.
   • 1965, Francis X. Corrigan, Middle English readings in translation:

     This is their doom that here in sin Lie and their sins will not cease; But would they think about Judgment Day, It behooves them to leave their plightful play.

   • 2005, Curt Bissonette, Noble Stone:

     Athelstan said, in a much more serious way, “It is truly a plightful time for the Angles, and it always has been, as far back as I can remember. The Northmen kill or at least mar all that they touch.

2. Full of plight; plighted; pledged; devoted.
   • 1866, Henry J. Verlander, The bride of Rougemont:

     She liv'd and lov'd.―I wedded two. 'The Devil!'―Yes. What could I do? To her I ow'd my plightful vow, To Ruth, my life, and freedom now.

Etymology 2

From plight +‎ -ful.

Adjective

plightful (comparative more plightful, superlative most plightful)

1. Indicating plight; dire; grim; grievous.
   • 2009, Dr. Ulas Basar Gezgin, Vietnam & Asia in Flux, 2008:

     For example, poor villagers can destroy the forests because of their plightful conditions.

2. Pitiful.
   • 1972, Commonweal, volume 96:

     In some surreal and inevitable moment, some jingle-jangle wee hour of morning, they may even have shared billing on the same campus stage: joined harmonics and harmonics, strummed out some plightful version of "Musee des Beaux Arts" [...]