scourge
Americannoun
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scourges
plural
noun
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a person who harasses, punishes, or causes destruction
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a means of inflicting punishment or suffering
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a whip used for inflicting punishment or torture
verb
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to whip; flog
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to punish severely
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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scourgernoun
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self-scourgingadjective
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unscourgedadjective
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unscourgingadjective
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scourginglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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scourgesimple
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scourgessimple
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have scourgedperfect
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has scourgedperfect
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am scourgingprogressive
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are scourgingprogressive
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is scourgingprogressive
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have been scourgingperfect progressive
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has been scourgingperfect progressive
Past
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scourgedsimple
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had scourgedperfect
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was scourgingprogressive
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were scourgingprogressive
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had been scourgingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of scourge
1175–1225; (noun) Middle English < Anglo-French escorge, derivative of escorgier to whip < Vulgar Latin *excorrigiāre, derivative of Latin corrigia thong, whip ( see ex- 1); (v.) Middle English < Old French escorgier
Explanation
If something makes people miserable or causes them great pain and torment, it's a scourge. A corrupt government is one kind of scourge, and a plague of insects that destroys a farmer's crops is another kind of scourge. Dating from the 13th century, scourge originally meant "a whip used as punishment." It wasn't long until the figurative meaning of "something causing pain or misery" became even more common. A scourge tends to be something that causes folks to suffer terribly, whether it's a tsunami or unjust laws. You can also use this word as a verb: "Cutting the city's transportation budget will do nothing but scourge people without cars."
Vocabulary lists containing scourge
"Of Mice and Men"
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Beowulf
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This Week in Words: September 8 - 14, 2018
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
If you ever had the chance to talk to World War II veterans, you know they believed they were fighting for “freedom” against the scourge of fascism.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
El-Sayed subsequently distanced himself, issuing a statement Monday calling anti-Semitism a "scourge."
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
One country has managed to hold firm against this scourge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
For Airbnb, the short term rental platform, these parties are not exactly a fun time: They are a scourge of noise complaints, injury risks and property damage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Inquiry was made into the origin of the scourge, and by degrees various facts came out which excited public indignation in a high degree.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
The pair brainstormed an idea they would later pitch to OpenAI: using AI to design remedies against AI-enabled bioweapons, and cure other scourges along the way, too.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
But I believe the answer to those scourges can be found not in an advocate’s crusading righteousness, but in a journalist’s humbler mission: to seek the truth and help people understand the world.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 8, 2024
Though we might assume Elmo is unencumbered by society’s scourges in the same way we are, it’s worth reminding ourselves that he’s partly assuming some of that baggage for us.
From Salon ● Feb. 3, 2024
Malaria kills mostly babies and infants, and has been one of the biggest scourges on humanity.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2023
“That’s very true,” Talc agreed, eager to join any campaign against the figures of English history, who had been the scourges of his existence for so many years.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
He then revealed his "scourged back" as proof.
From BBC ● Dec. 8, 2022
Pope Francis, in 2013, said the shroud is an “icon of a man scourged and crucified.”
From Washington Times ● Feb. 24, 2022
The subject, from St. John’s Gospel, shows Pontius Pilate presenting the scourged and mocked Christ to the crowd.
From New York Times ● Apr. 8, 2021
Diane Offutt, eyes squeezed shut, nodded amen, as did the girlfriend, while Kovler portrayed their man as industrious and responsible, not someone fitting the profile of a shooter in a metropolis scourged by hair-trigger mayhem.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 10, 2019
Then he began to chant aloud: Burn, scourged world, Furious furnace, Inferno impure— He opened his eyes.
From "Gathering Blue" by Lois Lowry
In 1869, the British critic Matthew Arnold observed that Protestant Americans had internalized Hebraism’s scourging demands for “conduct and obedience” and “strictness of conscience”:
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2024
When Fo won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1997, the Nobel Committee praised him for “emulating the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2022
Tygart, who has never been especially lenient, has begun to protest vehemently against WADA’s public scourging of athletes as drug cheats over a single low-level test.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 16, 2021
Part of her brilliance as a filmmaker lies in her mastery of the cinematic canons she subjects to thorough critical scourging.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2019
They involved doing penance for a sin not yet committed, intense and fervent penance accompanied by scourging and flagellation, so as to build up, as it were, a store of credit.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
