plague - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com

When the homeowner described her ant problem as a plague, the exterminator thought she was being a bit melodramatic. After all, a few bugs aren't exactly a huge calamity.

Centuries ago, if you had admitted to a friend that you had the plague, that friend would have hightailed it in the other direction. In the Middle Ages, the plague was a horribly contagious illness that spread like wildfire through Europe, killing millions of people. Thanks to the introduction of better hygiene and antibiotics, plague doesn't describe a killer disease as often these days. Instead, it commonly overstates an annoyance, like an apartment dweller claiming his building is plagued by cockroaches.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: plague

1	n	any large scale calamity (especially when thought to be sent by God)
2	n v	any epidemic disease with a high death rate cause to suffer a blight
3	n v	an annoyance annoy continually or chronically

FULL DEFINITIONS OF: plague

1

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

Type of:: calamity, cataclysm, catastrophe, disaster, tragedy
an event resulting in great loss and misfortune

2

n any epidemic disease with a high death rate

Synonyms:: pest, pestilence

Type of:: epidemic disease
any infectious disease that develops and spreads rapidly to many people

n a serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea that has bitten an infected animal

Synonyms:: pest, pestilence, pestis

Types:: show 5 types...; hide 5 types...; bubonic plague, glandular plague, pestis bubonica
the most common form of the plague in humans; characterized by chills, prostration, delirium and the formation of buboes in the armpits and groin; does not spread from person to person; plague pneumonia, pneumonic plague, pulmonic plague
a rapidly progressive and frequently fatal form of the plague that can spread through the air from person to person; characterized by lung involvement with chill, bloody expectoration and high fever; septicemic plague
an especially dangerous and generally fatal form of the plague in which infecting organisms invade the bloodstream; does not spread from person to person; ambulant plague, ambulatory plague, pestis ambulans
a mild form of bubonic plague; Black Death, Black Plague
the epidemic form of bubonic plague experienced during the Middle Ages when it killed nearly half the people of western Europe

Type of:: epidemic disease
any infectious disease that develops and spreads rapidly to many people

n a swarm of insects that attack plants

“a plague of grasshoppers”

Synonyms:: infestation

Type of:: cloud, swarm
a group of many things in the air or on the ground

v cause to suffer a blight

Synonyms:: blight

Type of:: afflict, smite
cause physical pain or suffering in

3

n an annoyance

“those children are a damn plague”

Type of:: annoyance, bother, botheration, infliction, pain, pain in the ass, pain in the neck
something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness

v annoy continually or chronically

Synonyms:: beset, chevvy, chevy, chivvy, chivy, harass, harry, hassle, molest, provoke

Types:: show 7 types...; hide 7 types...; goad, needle
goad or provoke,as by constant criticism; bedevil, crucify, dun, frustrate, rag, torment
treat cruelly; haze
harass by imposing humiliating or painful tasks, as in military institutions; madden
drive up the wall; go on someone's nerves; hamstring
make ineffective or powerless; badger, beleaguer, bug, pester, tease
annoy persistently; oppress, persecute
cause to suffer

Type of:: annoy, bother, chafe, devil, get at, get to, gravel, irritate, nark, nettle, rag, rile, vex
cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations