comforts

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of comfort.

   After the long expedition, the team craved the simple comforts of a hot meal and a dry bed.

   Modern apartments offer everyday comforts that earlier generations never imagined.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the countable side of the noun: particular things that give ease or relief, such as a consolation or a small luxury. Contentment as a state usually stays uncountable, so you live in comfort but enjoy the comforts of home. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb meaning to soothe someone. When an object follows (comforts her), the word is that verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of comfort.

   A mother instinctively comforts her crying infant.

   The nurse comforts each patient with a few quiet words before surgery.

   Note

   A transitive form: someone comforts someone else, and the object is usually the person in distress. The verb once also meant to strengthen or fortify and to aid or help, but those meanings are obsolete. In present-day English the form carries only the sense of easing grief or worry. Read an older text with care, though, because "comforts" there may mean "strengthens" or "supports".

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