Library / English Dictionary

INCONVENIENCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A difficulty that causes anxiety

Synonyms:

inconvenience; troublesomeness; worriment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("inconvenience" is a kind of...):

difficultness; difficulty (the quality of being difficult)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "inconvenience"):

awkwardness; cumbersomeness; unwieldiness (trouble in carrying or managing caused by bulk or shape)

flea bite (a very minor inconvenience)

fly in the ointment (an inconvenience that detracts from the usefulness of something)

unwieldiness (the quality of being difficult to direct or control by reason of complexity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of not being useful or convenient

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("inconvenience" is a kind of...):

ineptness; unsuitability; unsuitableness (the quality of having the wrong properties for a specific purpose)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "inconvenience"):

inaccessibility; unavailability (the quality of not being available when needed)

inopportuneness; untimeliness (the quality of occurring at an inconvenient time)

Antonym:

convenience (the quality of being useful and convenient)

Derivation:

inconvenience (to cause inconvenience or discomfort to)

inconvenient (not suited to your comfort, purpose or needs)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An inconvenient discomfort

Synonyms:

incommodiousness; inconvenience

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("inconvenience" is a kind of...):

discomfort; uncomfortableness (the state of being tense and feeling pain)

Derivation:

inconvenience (to cause inconvenience or discomfort to)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

To cause inconvenience or discomfort to

Example:

Sorry to trouble you, but...

Synonyms:

bother; discommode; disoblige; incommode; inconvenience; put out; trouble

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "inconvenience" is one way to...):

affect; bear on; bear upon; impact; touch; touch on (have an effect upon)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "inconvenience"):

distress; straiten (bring into difficulties or distress, especially financial hardship)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

inconvenience (the quality of not being useful or convenient)

inconvenience (an inconvenient discomfort)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The very small inconvenience of being bitten, my young friend, cannot, I am sure, weigh with you as against the glorious privilege of having your name inscribed in the deathless roll of zoology.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This was the last inconvenience which I should have expected a famous prize-fighter to be subjected to, but several bull-faced fellows at the other side of the table nodded their concurrence.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Digital mammography is quick and has the potential to reduce patient anxiety and inconvenience.

(Digital mammography, NCI Thesaurus)

The only inconvenience is, that none of these projects are yet brought to perfection; and in the mean time, the whole country lies miserably waste, the houses in ruins, and the people without food or clothes.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

On the 23rd you incommoded me; by the middle of February I was seriously inconvenienced by you; at the end of March I was absolutely hampered in my plans; and now, at the close of April, I find myself placed in such a position through your continual persecution that I am in positive danger of losing my liberty. The situation is becoming an impossible one.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her son answered cheerfully, telling her that everything was always for the best; and making light of his own inconvenience in being obliged to hurry away so soon.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I should not attempt it, if it were to be the means of inconvenience to the Highbury people, but if you call to mind exactly the present line of the path....

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Whoever suffered inconvenience, she must suffer none, but it occupied a little time to settle the point of civility between the other two.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

But I did not feel the inconvenience of the weather; my imagination was busy in scenes of evil and despair.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I saw no prospect of ever getting rid of him; and, projecting myself into the future, used to think what an inconvenience he would be when he was an old man.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)