pest
an annoying or troublesome person, animal, or thing; nuisance.
an insect or other small animal that harms or destroys garden plants, trees, etc.
a deadly epidemic disease, especially a plague; pestilence.
Origin of pest
1Other words for pest
Other words from pest
- de-pest, verb (used with object)
Words Nearby pest
Other definitions for Pest (2 of 2)
See under Budapest.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use pest in a sentence
Then 4–1, the commissioners voted to go forward with a test of genetically modified males as pest control devices.
Genetically modified mosquitoes have been OK’d for a first U.S. test flight | Susan Milius | August 22, 2020 | Science NewsHe wondered if it was the consequence of decades of the dingoes’ status as a livestock pest.
Culling dingoes with poison may be making them bigger | Jake Buehler | August 19, 2020 | Science NewsThey also sent surveys out to pest control companies around the world.
The ‘ratpocalypse’ isn’t nigh, according to service call data | Bethany Brookshire | July 14, 2020 | Science NewsWhen food disappears, or pest control comes, rat populations fall.
Why you’re spotting more wildlife during COVID-19 | Bethany Brookshire | June 8, 2020 | Science News For StudentsThat can keep pests in check and limit damage, without unintended harm to pollinators.
Pesticides can have long-term impact on bumblebee learning | Alison Pearce Stevens | May 18, 2020 | Science News For Students
Bassett sounded off on the importance of eradicating problem pest areas.
Scotts Miracle Gro made a pest resistant Kentucky bluegrass in 2011 using the same technology.
"Earworm" has been around for quite some time to refer to a pest that burrows into the ears of corn.
New Words Added to Merriam-Webster Dictionary: ‘Man Cave,’ ‘Sexting,’ and More | Kory L. Stamper | August 14, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTWith one swift ninja movement, Obama swatted the pest with ease, leaving it lifeless on the ground.
And, for a year or so after they first met, he was an incorrigible pest.
Gloria Cain: Sex Accusations Make No Sense in 'Old School' Marriage | Michelle Cottle | November 15, 2011 | THE DAILY BEASTWhat has happened between you and the communiers, whom may the pest carry off and hell confound!
The Pilgrim's Shell or Fergan the Quarryman | Eugne SueIt is an animal not less mischievous than it is deformed; it is the pest of man, and the torment of other animals.
Buffon's Natural History. Volume VII (of 10) | Georges Louis Leclerc de BuffonAll weapons seemed lawful against such a mere pest as this—a dog in the manger.
It Is Never Too Late to Mend | Charles ReadeThey do not live in fixed abodes, but shift about in search of game or plunder, and are deemed a pest by the Santa Fe traders.
The Indian in his Wigwam | Henry R. SchoolcraftThat Arabic word, picked up at hazard from the dragoman, has acted like a talisman—the pest has actually gone!
Round the Wonderful World | G. E. Mitton
British Dictionary definitions for pest
/ (pɛst) /
a person or thing that annoys, esp by imposing itself when it is not wanted; nuisance
any organism that damages crops, injures or irritates livestock or man, or reduces the fertility of land
(as modifier): pest control
rare an epidemic disease or pestilence
Origin of pest
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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