PLAGUE
Dictionary entry overview: What does plague mean?
• PLAGUE (noun)
The noun PLAGUE has 5 senses:
1. 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
2. any epidemic disease with a high death rate
3. a swarm of insects that attack plants
4. any large scale calamity (especially when thought to be sent by God)
5. an annoyance
Familiarity information: PLAGUE used as a noun is common.
• PLAGUE (verb)
The verb PLAGUE has 2 senses:
1. cause to suffer a blight
2. annoy continually or chronically
Familiarity information: PLAGUE used as a verb is rare.
Dictionary entry details
• PLAGUE (noun)
Meaning:
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
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Synonyms:
plague; pestis; pestilence; pest
Hypernyms ("plague" is a kind of...):
epidemic disease (any infectious disease that develops and spreads rapidly to many people)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "plague"):
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)
Meaning:
Any epidemic disease with a high death rate
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Synonyms:
pest; pestilence; plague
Hypernyms ("plague" is a kind of...):
epidemic disease (any infectious disease that develops and spreads rapidly to many people)
Meaning:
A swarm of insects that attack plants
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Synonyms:
infestation; plague
Context example:
a plague of grasshoppers
Hypernyms ("plague" is a kind of...):
cloud; swarm (a group of many insects)
Meaning:
Any large scale calamity (especially when thought to be sent by God)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural events
Hypernyms ("plague" is a kind of...):
calamity; cataclysm; catastrophe; disaster; tragedy (an event resulting in great loss and misfortune)
Meaning:
An annoyance
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Context example:
those children are a damn plague
Hypernyms ("plague" is a kind of...):
annoyance; bother; botheration; infliction; pain; pain in the ass; pain in the neck (something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness)
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
• PLAGUE (verb)
Meaning:
Cause to suffer a blight
Classified under:
Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering
Synonyms:
blight; plague
Context example:
Too much rain may blight the garden with mold
Hypernyms (to "plague" is one way to...):
afflict; smite (cause pain or suffering in)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Meaning:
Annoy continually or chronically
Classified under:
Verbs of feeling
Synonyms:
hassle; harry; harass; chivy; chivvy; chevy; chevvy; beset; molest; plague; provoke
Context examples:
He is known to harry his staff when he is overworked / This man harasses his female co-workers
Hypernyms (to "plague" is one way to...):
annoy; bother; chafe; devil; get at; get to; gravel; irritate; nark; nettle; rag; rile; vex (cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "plague"):
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)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Sentence example:
Sam cannot plague Sue
