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:
One country has managed to hold firm against this scourge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
"That way authorities can better root out digital deception like this and permanently remove the fraudsters responsible for what is a truly online scourge."
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
It could provide solace if it comes in weaker than expected, or be a scourge if it continues to heat up.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
One cites her newfound sobriety as evidence that people can change — a nod to Steyer’s self-proclaimed metamorphosis from hedge fund titan to scourge of big corporations.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 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 scourges of terrorism and antisemitism are shared, international challenges and need concerted and determined action to defeat them," it added.
From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2025
Yet these scourges aren’t unique to Mexico, the author points out—they exist around the world, even in “the countries that pride themselves on being the democracies par excellence.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
Extreme weather disasters became more common, bringing with them the scourges of disease and famine.
From Salon ● Jan. 22, 2024
Yet many scientists say the platform is effective and may be nimble enough to be used against an array of scourges, from flu to types of cancer.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 17, 2023
Ancient foragers, who had domesticated only dogs, were free of these scourges.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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
Nine major fires have scourged the Paradise area in the last century, including two back-to-back blazes that reached the edge of town in the summer of 2008.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 5, 2018
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
That has left innovation, with the exception of a few one-person shows, largely to small theaters in rural areas where the pandemic has been less scourging.
From New York Times ● Oct. 14, 2020
He had clearly never heard the scourging din of Scentless Apprentice, on which Cobain’s agonised screaming of the seemingly innocuous phrase offers a deeply disturbing insight into the singer’s post-fame state of mind.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 20, 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.
