Pestilence

[Plague, The, THE]

PES'TILENCE expresses all sorts of distempers and calamities. Jer 21:6. The Hebrew word, which properly signifies the "plague," is applied to all epidemical and contagious diseases. Pestilences are still very common in Asia and Africa. It is supposed to have been by a species of pestilence that the first-born of Egypt were cut off. Ps 78:60, Jer 25:51. A pestilent fellow is one who is mischievous and disposed to corrupt and ruin a multitude. Acts 24:5. See Plague.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. Specifically, the disease known as the plague; hence, any contagious or infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating. The pestilence That walketh in darkness. Ps. xci. 6.

2. Fig.: That which is pestilent, noxious, or pernicious to the moral character of great numbers. I'll pour this pestilence into his ear. Shak. Pestilence weed (Bot.), the butterbur coltsfoot (Petasites vulgaris), so called because formerly considered a remedy for the plague. Dr. Prior.