infested

[in-fes-tid]

adjective

1. overrun to an unwanted degree or in a troublesome manner by predatory animals or vermin (often used in combination).

   It is so difficult to eradicate cockroaches from an infested area.

   The only unguarded way of escape was through an alligator-infested swamp.

2. filled or riddled with anything undesirable or troublesome (usually used in combination).

   The restaurant sat in an increasingly tourist-infested part of town.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of infest.

Other Word Forms

• uninfested adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of infested¹

First recorded in 1890–1900; infest ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses; infest ( def. ) + -ed ¹ ( def. ) for the verb sense

Example Sentences

The owner of the veterinary clinic arrived at work at 6:30 a.m. and found the dog, which was “extremely malnourished,” infested with fleas and missing a tooth, Spitzer said.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Within days the whole nursery had become infested.

Read more on Literature

Toynbee documented their movement to suburbs, with the cities becoming predictably poorer, “infested with slums.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Isra says she and her siblings were sometimes sleeping four to a room and that the places they were housed in were often infested with rats.

Read more on BBC

If that makes you a little sick, if the whole thing feels a little unclean, that’s only because the internet has become a nauseous, infested place.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• ravaged