Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A highly infectious, usually fatal, epidemic disease; a pestilence.
  • noun A virulent, infectious disease that is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis (syn. Pasteurella pestis) and is transmitted primarily by the bite of fleas from an infected rodent, especially a rat. In humans it occurs in bubonic form, marked by lymph node enlargement, and in pneumonic form, marked by infection of the lungs, and can progress to septicemia.
  • noun A widespread affliction or calamity seen as divine retribution.
  • noun An influx or large number of destructive or unwanted things, especially animals.
  • noun Something that causes persistent hardship, trouble, or annoyance.
  • transitive verb To pester or annoy persistently or incessantly. synonym: harass.
  • transitive verb To cause suffering or hardship for.
  • transitive verb To be a widespread or continuous problem or defect in.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A blow or calamity; severe trouble or vexation; also, one who or that which troubles or vexes, or ravages or destroys.
  • noun Any epidemic disease of high mortality.
  • noun As an expletive with the article the, used like the devil, the deuce, etc. Compare devil, 7.
  • To vex; harass; trouble; annoy; tease.
  • To infest with disease, calamity, or natural evil of any kind.
  • Synonyms Torment, Worry, etc. (see tease), gall, bore.
  • To afflict.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To infest or afflict with disease, calamity, or natural evil of any kind.
  • transitive verb Fig.: To vex; to tease; to harass.
  • noun That which smites, wounds, or troubles; a blow; a calamity; any afflictive evil or torment; a great trail or vexation.
  • noun (Med.) An acute malignant contagious fever, that often prevails in Egypt, Syria, and Turkey, and has at times visited the large cities of Europe with frightful mortality; hence, any pestilence.
  • noun See Rinderpest.
  • noun a spot or mark of the plague; hence, a token of something incurable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The bubonic plague, the pestilent disease caused by the virulent bacterium Yersinia pestis.
  • noun pathology An epidemic or pandemic caused by any pestilence, but specifically by the above disease.
  • noun A widespread affliction, calamity or destructive influx, especially when seen as divine retribution.
  • noun A grave nuisance, whatever greatly irritates
  • verb transitive To harass, pester or annoy someone persistently or incessantly.
  • verb transitive To afflict with a disease or other calamity.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cause to suffer a blight
  • noun any large scale calamity (especially when thought to be sent by God)
  • noun an annoyance
  • noun any epidemic disease with a high death rate
  • noun a swarm of insects that attack plants
  • verb annoy continually or chronically
  • noun a serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea that has bitten an infected animal

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English plage, blow, calamity, plague, from Late Latin plāga, from Latin, blow, wound; see plāk- in Indo-European roots. V., Middle English plaghen, from Middle Dutch, from plaghe, plague, from Late Latin plāga.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English plage, from Latin plāga ("blow, wound"), from plangō ("to strike"). Cognate with Dutch plaag, German Plage, Swedish plåga, French plaie and Polish plaga.

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Examples

  • : 15 am CST Police prepare drill for plague at school The event will use volunteers pretending to have been stricken by the plague to help test the flow of the site, from initial triage through receiving PROOF of being medicated.www. nwherald.com Ukraine pneumonic plague update

    WN.com - Articles related to India gets own vaccine against swine flu 2010

  • Friday, November 6, 2009 1: 15 am CST Police prepare drill for plague at school The event will use volunteers pretending to have been stricken by the plague to help test the flow of the site, from initial triage through receiving PROOF of being medicated.www. nwherald.com Ukraine pneumonic plague update 969247 affected fto. co.za Ukraine Flu Trends, OFF THE CHARTS www. google.org URGENT** Ukraine and World Pneumonic Plague Information ukraineplague. blogspot.com Ukraine: Influenza or Pneumonic Plague?

    WN.com - Articles related to First flu virus detector in JDWNRH 2010

  • Friday, November 6, 2009 1: 15 am CST Police prepare drill for plague at school The event will use volunteers pretending to have been stricken by the plague to help test the flow of the site, from initial triage through receiving PROOF of being medicated.www. nwherald.com Ukraine pneumonic plague update 969247 affected fto. co.za Ukraine Flu Trends, OFF THE CHARTS www. google.org URGENT** Ukraine and World Pneumonic Plague Information ukraineplague. blogspot.com Ukraine: Influenza or Pneumonic Plague?

    WN.com - Articles related to India gets own vaccine against swine flu 2010

  • : 15 am CST Police prepare drill for plague at school The event will use volunteers pretending to have been stricken by the plague to help test the flow of the site, from initial triage through receiving PROOF of being medicated.www. nwherald.com Ukraine pneumonic plague update

    WN.com - Articles related to First flu virus detector in JDWNRH 2010

  • Although the plague is a fact of history, one will find it difficult to locate anything more horrific than the pestilence that arrived that year in Europe.

    Horrors Prices | SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Collectibles 2009

  • The only fish concoction I avoid like the plague is any piscine soup dish.

    notes from the peanut gallery Dean Francis Alfar 2003

  • The only fish concoction I avoid like the plague is any piscine soup dish.

    Archive 2003-11-01 Dean Francis Alfar 2003

  • "Many people say plainly that the coming of the plague is a punishment sent on the Hindus because of their treatment of you in the school matter."

    Daughters of India 1908

  • A leading ballerina at Milan's La Scala who criticised what she described as a plague of

    The Guardian World News Tom Kington 2012

  • I'd have used the word plague, but no, scourge works just as nicely.

    msnbc.com: Top msnbc.com headlines 2012

Comments

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  • "A plague of sighing and grief! It blows a man up like a bladder. - Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I.

    September 25, 2009

  • crumbs attacte mice, and mice leave droppings. And that's how the plague started.

    November 22, 2011