pest

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“
And Bt-an organic insecticide that affects only caterpillars feeding on sprayed plants-is the answer, whether the pest is your white broccoli worm (or the more common green one), tomato hornworm, pickleworm-whatever.

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Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun An annoying person or thing; a nuisance.
  2. noun An injurious plant or animal, especially one harmful to humans.
  3. noun A deadly epidemic disease; a pestilence.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (50)

  • In the case of corn, the pest is the European corn borer. —  dailyindia.com News Feed
  • Survey work conducted by state and federal experts indicates the pest has been there at least five years, maybe longer. —  Kansas City Star: Front Page
  • Those who want to be sure their infestation is taken care of will likely want to call a pest-management professional, Binkley advised.
  • We all know that managing this pest is a fight against the seed banks and the population we have in the field. —  Delta Farm Press RSS Feed
  • Things in nature that sometimes seem a pest are there for a purpose. —  CNN Political Ticker
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This word has been looked up 117 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French peste, pestilence, from Old French, from Latin pestis.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French peste = Spanish Portuguese Italian peste, from Latin pestis, a deadly epidemic disease, plague, pestilence, ruin, destruction; with formative -ti, from a root variously sought in perdere, destroy (see perdition), in petere, fall upon, attack (see petition), in pati, suffer (see passion, patient), or elsewhere.
 

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/pɛst/
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