blighted
Americanadjective
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Plant Pathology. affected with blight, a disease or condition characterized by the rapid and extensive discoloration, wilting, and death of plant tissues.
Small, black fungal fruiting bodies form on the blighted twigs and produce infective spores.
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dilapidated or deteriorated.
They saw the potential for the blighted building to provide affordable housing once renovated, and took on the project.
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(of a region, city, area, etc.) not flourishing; stagnant, run-down, socially depressed, etc..
A new fitness center and natural foods market are replacing a blighted corner with jobs, economic activity, and healthier lifestyles.
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ruined or marred.
The people who forget their past are condemned to a blighted future.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of blighted
blight + -ed 2 ( def. ) blight for defs. 1, 2, 4; blight + -ed 3 ( def. ) blight for def. 3; blight + -ed 1 ( def. ) blighted for def. 5
Explanation
Use the adjective blighted to describe something that has a condition that makes it weak or unable to grow, like a blighted lawn with more brown patches than green. Language experts can’t agree on the exact origins of the word blighted, but when it entered English in the sixteenth century it was used to describe a skin condition. Today, you’ll hear the word applied to plants that are affected by a condition that causes them to wither and die, like a blighted tomato crop, or to describe the neglect and decay of places, such as blighted buildings that pose safety hazards.
Vocabulary lists containing blighted
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
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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.
Blighted are the plans and hopes of thousands of young people who took part in the upheavals of the past 10 years.
From US News • Jul. 1, 2016
Blighted by it today is more than half the nation's land surface�approximately 1,700,000 sq. mi. in 26 states.
From Time Magazine Archive
Blighted Areas Raised above the ruck of workaday unfortunates by the special quality of their afflictions were two people: Jack-of-All-Theatrics Orson Welles and Jill-of-All-Parties Elsa Maxwell.
From Time Magazine Archive
A patter record he and Bing Crosby made of Alexander's Ragtime Band and The Spaniard That Blighted My Life has sold 300,000 copies in two weeks.
From Time Magazine Archive
Blighted hopes and adversity come with this dream.
From Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted, or what's in a dream: a scientific and practical exposition by Miller, Gustavus Hindman
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.
