pestilence
[pes-tl-uh ns]
- a deadly or virulent epidemic disease.
- bubonic plague.
- something that is considered harmful, destructive, or evil.
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Origin of pestilence
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
scourge, sickness, contagion, disease, infection, virus, plague, rash, outbreak, endemicExamples from the Web for pestilence
Contemporary Examples
This notion of pestilence as a “great equalizer” has remained in vogue ever since plague pop culture began.
In dramatic lore their names are Death, Destruction, Pestilence, and Famine.
In the meantime, I do kind of hope he wins Iowa, so that he can spread some of that pestilence around the GOP.
The coded “proofs” are everywhere: Floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, and pestilence.
Cats, the Times told us, are a pestilence akin to gypsy moths and kudzu.
Historical Examples
The second power of vulgarity is obscenity, and this vice is like the pestilence.
The Call of the Twentieth CenturyDavid Starr Jordan
The chief of a nation that prefers the pestilence of despotism to the plague of anarchy.
The Devil's DictionaryAmbrose Bierce
How is it that some pestilence does not carry off all these poor people?
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
Yet it had sufficed that the nations should flock there for a pestilence to break out.
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
"Avoid it like a pestilence, monsieur," he answered promptly.
Bardelys the MagnificentRafael Sabatini
pestilence
- any epidemic outbreak of a deadly and highly infectious disease, such as the plague
- such a disease
- an evil influence or idea
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for pestilence
n.
c.1300, from Old French pestilence "plague, epidemic" (12c.) and directly from Latin pestilentia "a plague, an unwholesome atmosphere," noun of condition from pestilentem (nominative pestilens) "infected, unwholesome, noxious," from pestis "deadly disease, plague" (see pest).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
pestilence
(pĕs′tə-ləns)- A usually fatal epidemic disease, especially bubonic plague.
- An epidemic of such a disease.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.