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plague

pla·gue

UK/pleɪɡ/ US/pʰl̥eɪɡ/ fairly common
verb (2) noun (5)

verb

1.

cause to suffer a blight

  • “Too much rain may blight the garden with mold”
Synonyms
2.

annoy continually or chronically

  • “He is known to harry his staff when he is overworked”
  • “This man harasses his female co-workers”
Synonyms

noun

1.

a serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected rat flea (especially bubonic plague)

2.

any epidemic disease with a high death rate

Synonyms
3.

a swarm of insects that attack plants

  • “a plague of grasshoppers”
Synonyms
4.

any large scale calamity (especially when thought to be sent by God)

5.

an annoyance

  • “those children are a damn plague”

Origin

From Middle English plage, borrowed from Old French plage, from Latin plāga (“blow, wound”), from plangō (“to strike”). Cognate with Middle Dutch plāghe (> Dutch plaag), plāghen (> Dutch plagen); Middle Low German plāge; Middle High German plāge, pflāge (> German Plage); plāgen (> German plagen); Swedish plåga; French plaie, Occitan plaga. Doublet of plaga. Displaced native Old English wōl.

Phrases

  • Australian plague locust
  • avoid like the plague
  • be at the plague
  • bird plague
  • Black Plague
  • bubonic plague
  • capacitor plague
  • cattle plague

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.