Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Producing or breeding infectious disease.
- adjective Infected with or contaminated by an epidemic disease.
- adjective Morally evil or deadly; pernicious.
- adjective Bothersome; annoying.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Plague-bearing; pestilential; infectious; contagious: as, pestiferous particles.
- Noxious in any manner; mischievous; malignant; annoying.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Pest-bearing; pestilential; noxious to health; malignant; infectious; contagious.
- adjective Noxious to peace, to morals, or to society; vicious; hurtful; destructive.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective containing
organisms that causecontagious diseases - adjective
annoying ,vexatious
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective contaminated with infecting organisms
- adjective causing irritation or annoyance
- adjective tending to corrupt or pervert
- adjective likely to spread and cause an epidemic disease
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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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.
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He had hitched his wagon to a star and been landed in a pestiferous marsh.
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In his call for a crusade, Innocent III denounced the Cathars as “pestiferous men.”
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In his call for a crusade, Innocent III denounced the Cathars as “pestiferous men.”
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Even pestiferous snow geese should be hunted with respect, not shot like rats or starlings.
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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.
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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.
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“Let us say a bond of, oh, only a pound, because she caused some trouble to that pestiferous printer Franklin.”
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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.
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The place was of the most ricketty description, and situated in the midst of filthy and pestiferous nuisances.
ofravens commented on the word pestiferous
For some reason, whenever I hear this word I mentally pair it with 'varmint.'
July 24, 2008
dontcry commented on the word pestiferous
*hork*
July 24, 2008