Nearby Words

plagues

[pleyg] Origin

plague

[pleyg] noun, verb, plagued, pla·guing.
noun
1.
an epidemic disease that causes high mortality; pestilence.
2.
an infectious, epidemic disease caused by a bacterium, Yersinia pestis, characterized by fever, chills, and prostration, transmitted to humans from rats by means of the bites of fleas. Compare bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, septicemic plague.
3.
any widespread affliction, calamity, or evil, especially one regarded as a direct punishment by God: a plague of war and desolation.
4.
any cause of trouble, annoyance, or vexation: Uninvited guests are a plague.
verb (used with object)
5.
to trouble, annoy, or torment in any manner: The question of his future plagues him with doubt.
6.
to annoy, bother, or pester: Ants plagued the picnickers.
7.
to smite with a plague, pestilence, death, etc.; scourge: those whom the gods had plagued.
8.
to infect with a plague; cause an epidemic in or among: diseases that still plague the natives of Ethiopia.
9.
to afflict with any evil: He was plagued by allergies all his life.

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Plagues is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English plage < Latin plāga stripe, wound, Late Latin: pestilence

pla·guer, noun
an·ti·plague, noun, adjective
un·plagued, adjective

plague, plaque.


4. nuisance, bother, torment. 6. harass, vex, harry, hector, fret, worry, badger, irritate, disturb. See bother.

Dictionary.com Unabridged

Plague, The

noun
(French, La Peste), a novel (1947) by Albert Camus.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

plague
1382, "affliction, calamity, evil, scourge," also "malignant disease," from M.Fr. plague, from L.L. plaga, used in Vulgate for "pestilence," from L. plaga "stroke, wound," probably from root of plangere "to strike, lament (by beating the breast)," from or cognate with Gk. (Doric) plaga "blow," from PIE
EXPAND
*plag- "hit" (cf. O.E. flocan "to strike, beat," Goth. flokan "to bewail," Ger. fluchen, O.Fris. floka "to curse"). O.Ir. plag (gen. plaige) "plague, pestilence" is from L. Specifically in ref. to "bubonic plague" from 1601. The verb is from 1481; in the sense of "bother, annoy" it is first recorded 1594. Plaguey "vexatious" is attested from 1615.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

plague (plāg)
n.
A highly infectious, usually fatal, epidemic disease, especially bubonic plague.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
plague   (plāg)  Pronunciation Key 
  1. Any of various highly infectious, usually fatal epidemic diseases.

  2. An often fatal disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted to humans usually by fleas that have bitten infected rats or other rodents. ◇ Bubonic plague, the most common type, is characterized by the tender, swollen lymph nodes called buboes, fever, clotting abnormalities of the blood, and tissue necrosis. An epidemic of bubonic plague in fourteenth-century Europe and Asia was known as the Black Death.


The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary
plague [(playg)]

A highly contagious disease, such as bubonic plague, that spreads quickly throughout a population and causes widespread sickness and death.

Note: The term is also used to refer to widespread outbreaks of many kinds, such as a “plague of locusts.”
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
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