INCONVENIENCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does inconvenience mean? 

• INCONVENIENCE (noun)
  The noun INCONVENIENCE has 3 senses:

1. an inconvenient discomfort

2. a difficulty that causes anxiety

3. the quality of not being useful or convenient

  Familiarity information: INCONVENIENCE used as a noun is uncommon.

• INCONVENIENCE (verb)
  The verb INCONVENIENCE has 1 sense:

1. to cause inconvenience or discomfort to

  Familiarity information: INCONVENIENCE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INCONVENIENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An inconvenient discomfort

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

incommodiousness; inconvenience

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

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

Derivation:

inconvenience (to cause inconvenience or discomfort to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A difficulty that causes anxiety

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

inconvenience; troublesomeness; worriment

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 3

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)

• INCONVENIENCE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they inconvenience    ... he / she / it inconveniences   
Past simple: inconvenienced   
Past participle: inconvenienced   
-ing form: inconveniencing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

To cause inconvenience or discomfort to

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

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

Context example:

Sorry to trouble you, but...

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)

 Context examples 

The preparations meanwhile went on, and Lady Bertram continued to sit on her sofa without any inconvenience from them.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Mr. Allen, he supposed, must feel these inconveniences as well as himself.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Ah! That was the act of a very, very young man, one too young to consider whether the inconvenience of it might not very much exceed the pleasure.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The inconveniences would have been different.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The wonder was, how any family upon earth could bear with the inconvenience of its opening as it did, so long!

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

It is to recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the very heads of your profession.

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

I have prevented his encountering the inconveniences and perhaps dangers of so long a journey, yet how often have I regretted not being able to perform it myself!

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I know that it will involve many privations and inconveniences.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He could not be satisfied with less, as Matt learned after much inconvenience and trouble.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

So, do not put yourself to inconvenience.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)