PLAGUE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Plague

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noun

Plague n.

1.

That which smites, wounds, or troubles; a blow; a calamity; any afflictive evil or torment; a great trail or vexation. "And men blasphemed God for the plague of hail." "The different plague of each calamity."

2.

(Med.) An acute malignant contagious fever, that often prevails in Egypt, Syria, and Turkey, and has at times visited the large cities of Europe with frightful mortality; hence, any pestilence; as, the great London plague. "A plague upon the people fell."

Cattle plague. See Rinderpest.

Plague mark, Plague spot, a spot or mark of the plague; hence, a token of something incurable.

verb

Plague v. t. (past & past part. plagued; pres. part. plaguing)

1.

To infest or afflict with disease, calamity, or natural evil of any kind. "Thus were they plagued And worn with famine."

2.

Fig.: To vex; to tease; to harass. "She will plague the man that loves her most."

Synonyms: To vex; torment; distress; afflict; harass; annoy; tease; tantalize; trouble; molest; embarrass; perplex.

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Etymology of 'Plague'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Plague" Quotes from Famous Books

... their habits, than any other people in Europe—the motions and appearances of the clouds were, not long ago, considered ominous of disastrous events. On the evening before new year's day, if a black cloud appeared in any part of the horizon, it was thought to prognosticate a plague, a famine, or the death of some great man in that part of the country over which it seemed to hang; and in order to ascertain the place threatened by the omen, the motions of the clouds were often watched through the whole night. In the same country, the inhabitants ...

— Popular Education - For the use of Parents and Teachers, and for Young Persons of Both Sexes • Ira Mayhew

... world would get on tolerably well, if there were no women in it. They plague the life out of one. You've made me forget, amongst you—poor old Job Haughton that I ought to have gone to see an ...

— Wives and Daughters • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... her eyes nor the drooping lips. Lorimer had asked permission to call upon her, that evening, and she knew by instinct what the evening was holding in store for her. Confronted with the final decision, she was at a loss which course to take. Should she close her eyes to the plague-spot which might one day spread and spread until it tainted her whole life? The present was very tempting. Why not take it, and ignore the future? Most girls would wink at the suspicion which, during the past week, had been clouding her dream of perfect content. How far was she accountable ...

— The Dominant Strain • Anna Chapin Ray

... the ordinary course of things, epidemics are special in their operation. Those which attack humanity spare the animals, and those which attack the animals spare the vegetables. A horse was never inflicted with smallpox, nor a man with the cattle-plague, nor do sheep suffer from the potato-rot. But here all the laws of nature seemed to be overturned. Not only were the character, temperament, and ideas of the townsfolk changed, but the domestic animals—dogs and cats, horses and cows, asses and goats—suffered ...

— A Winter Amid the Ice - and Other Thrilling Stories • Jules Verne

... pathos with wit. "The Two Doves" is another of La Fontaine's more tender inspirations. "The Mogul's Dream" is a somewhat ambitious flight of the fabulist's muse. On the whole, however, the masterpiece among the fables of La Fontaine is that of "The Animals Sick of the Plague." Such at least is the opinion of critics in general. The idea of this fable is not original with La Fontaine. The homilists of the middle ages used a similar fiction to enforce on priests the duty ...

— Classic French Course in English • William Cleaver Wilkinson

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