plague

8 definitions • 12 examples

to cause worry, pain, or difficulty to someone or something over a period of time:

Financial problems have been plaguing their new business partners.

My shoulder's been plaguing me all week.

to annoy someone, especially by asking repeated questions:

The children plagued him with questions all through lunch.

He's been plaguing me for a loan of the book.

a serious disease that kills many people, often used to refer to bubonic plague, a very infectious disease caused by bacteria spread mainly by fleas (= small insects that bite) on rats or other animals, that causes swelling, fever, and usually death in humans :

In 1349 almost half the townspeople of Cork died of plague after the Black Death arrived in the town.

The book looks at infectious diseases, from the plague to SARS, and at how treatment has changed over the centuries.

Somehow they had survived when the Plague came.

They described the historical plagues that had killed millions.

a large number of things that are unpleasant or likely to cause damage:

a plague of insects

to cause someone or something difficulty or suffering, esp. repeatedly or continually:

Financial problems have been plaguing the company.

That pain in my shoulder is plaguing me again.

a serious disease which kills many people

The plague refers to a disease that appeared several times in the 14th century and later and that killed more than one third of the people in Europe and many people in Africa and Asia; Black Death.

A plague is also a large number of insects or animals which cause damage or unpleasant conditions in an area:

[ C ] Trees throughout the Northeast are being attacked by a plague of gypsy moths.