Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Producing or breeding infectious disease.
- adj. Infected with or contaminated by an epidemic disease.
- adj. Morally evil or deadly; pernicious.
- adj. Bothersome; annoying.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Plague-bearing; pestilential; infectious; contagious: as, pestiferous particles.
- Noxious in any manner; mischievous; malignant; annoying.
Wiktionary
- adj. containing organisms that cause contagious diseases
- adj. annoying, vexatious
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Pest-bearing; pestilential; noxious to health; malignant; infectious; contagious.
- adj. Noxious to peace, to morals, or to society; vicious; hurtful; destructive.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. contaminated with infecting organisms
- adj. causing irritation or annoyance
- adj. tending to corrupt or pervert
- adj. likely to spread and cause an epidemic disease
Etymologies
- Mid 15th century, in sense “mischievous, pernicious”, from Latin pestiferus ("bearing plague"), from pestifer, from pestis ("plague") + ferre ("carry") (see infer). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Latin pestiferus, variant of pestifer : pestis, pestilence; see pest + -fer, -fer. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Vermont's record on the slavery issue was so strong that Georgia's legislature resolved that a ditch be dug around the "pestiferous" state and it be floated out to sea.”
“He had hitched his wagon to a star and been landed in a pestiferous marsh.”
“In his call for a crusade, Innocent III denounced the Cathars as “pestiferous men.””
“To me this sounds like the voice of privilege complaining about how annoying it is to deal with those pestiferous people who keep pointing out how unfair the privilege is.”
““Let us say a bond of, oh, only a pound, because she caused some trouble to that pestiferous printer Franklin.””
“Even pestiferous snow geese should be hunted with respect, not shot like rats or starlings.”
“All decent and patriotic Americans can now only hope that this will reinforce the Post's image as the champion of the Watergate exposure and an example of the integrity of America's fee (oops!) press, and, moreover, that it finally stills those pestiferous agitators, single-payer advocates, peaceniks, and other such rabble-rousers.”
“The place was of the most ricketty description, and situated in the midst of filthy and pestiferous nuisances.”
“But as annoying and pestiferous as some insects are, they are also very essential to us, as without them large portions of the ecology would collapse.”
“This in turn leads to unhealthy scruples about dropping bombs on said wogs and their pestiferous children.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pestiferous’.
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pabouche, pabulous, pabulum, pacable, pace, pachydermia, pachyglossal, pachymeter, pachynsis, paciferous, pacificate, pactolian and 1766 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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My Little Phonies
Names for the next generation of My Little Ponies. Inspired by Star's list.
juggernaught, flamboyant, cuddly maggot, astrobleme, agroof, windburn, poshlost, crucifer, feedbag, dunderwhelp, nebelwerfer, bliss ninny and 453 more...
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Words That Mean Things
I found most of these words in books! That means they MUST be good.
flinders, periplus, palaver, midden, cadge, legerdemain, flense, lapidary, geas, bailey, susurration, satoris and 128 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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Words I Should Use More Often
Words that I'll use to sound erudite.
fungible, aggrandizement, tete-a-tete, sententious, serendipitous, fortuitous, lugubrious, declivity, propitiatory, volubility, august, tenebrous and 214 more...
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Awesome Words, Part 2: More Common
pilgrim, indubitably, incorrigible, bombastic, histrionics, depredation, perspicuity, discombobulate, peregrination, ambulatory, redux, fractious and 164 more...
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heart of darkness
yawl, sea-reach, offing, barge, sprit, estuary, yarn, aft, mizzenmast, placid, gauzy, diaphanous and 141 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Bearing and Carrying
Words with the -fer suffix ("that which carries") or the -ferous suffix ("bearing," "producing," or "yielding").
aligerous, aluminiferous, antenniferous, argentiferous, armigerous, arundiferous, auriferous, bacciferous, balaniferous, barbigerous, belliferous, brachiferous and 187 more...
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-ferous, -iferous
having, bearing, or containing
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Carry Me Home
Another kind of bear list: words bearing the -fer suffix ("that which carries"), the -ferous suffix ("bearing," "producing," or "yielding").
Also see (if you like) Carry Me Home Again.aquifer, conifer, umbellifer, transfer, thurifer, defer, telfer, suffer, rotifer, refer, foraminifer, poriferous and 157 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
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hagendas 2008
mise-en-scene, occultation, lodestone, obdurate, remontoire, filigree, insensate, carapace, vicissitude, verdigris, indivuation, intercalate and 224 more...
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Adjectival Arcana
A roster of adjectives that infrequently surface in typical conversation and writing. Many are dredged from scientific or other technical jargon or sieved from examples of disused archaic forms.
unitegmic, acaulescent, reticuloendothelial, ingressive, uniate, acanthopterygian, ossific, epiphysial, perivisceral, acœlomatous, cestoid, acælomate and 7756 more...
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zetadiction
words that embody life
hydrae, kleptocracy, curmudgeon, wordie, risotto, qi, pulchritudinous, micropolitan, schadenfreude, neolithic, experimentalist, zeta and 477 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pestiferous.
dontcry *hork* Jul 24, 2008
ofravens For some reason, whenever I hear this word I mentally pair it with 'varmint.' Jul 24, 2008