- inconvenience
- inconvenience vb Inconvenience, incommode, discommode, trouble are comparable when they mean to subject to disturbance or annoyance.Inconvenience usually suggests little more than interference with one's plans, one's comfort, or one's freedom of action; it seldom carries suggestions of more than a temporary or slight disturbance or annoyance{
I hope the new arrangement will not inconvenience you
}{do not inconvenience him by intruding upon him while he is writing
}{she was frequently inconvenienced by the strong scent of tobacco which the fresh breeze conveyed through the porthole— Wylie
}Incommode and, even more, discommode carry a somewhat heightened suggestion of disturbance or annoyance, but not enough to imply actual suffering or injury; rather, they connote some mental agitation (as embarrassment or vexation) or more or less disagreeable interference with one's comfort or plans{Lucian was soon incommoded by the attention his cousin attracted— Shaw
}{"passenger disservice"—all the things which go to delay flights or otherwise to incommode the passenger— R. P. Cooke
}{it could not discommode you to receive any of his Grace's visitors or mine— Scott
}{finding herself and the younger children discommoded in the boat— Gait
}Trouble is often used in polite intercourse in a sense close to that of inconvenience, when it suggests even less effort or disturbance{may I trouble you to pass the salt
}{will it trouble you to drop this letter in the box when you are passing?
}It is, however, also used to imply serious disturbance or annoyance (as worry, deep concern, or great pains); in this sense and sometimes in the lighter sense, it is frequently reflexive{men troubled themselves about pain and death much as healthy bears did— Henry A dams
}{an artist who does not trouble about the philosophy of things, but just obeys the dim promptings of instinct— Montague
}Analogous words: disturb, *discompose: interfere, intermeddle, *meddle
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.