plague

From Middle English plage, borrowed from Old French plage, from Latin plāga (“blow, wound”), from plangō (“to strike”). Cognate with Middle Dutch plāghe (> Dutch plaag), plāghen (> Dutch plagen); Middle Low German plāge; Middle High German plāge, pflāge (> German Plage); plāgen (> German plagen); Swedish plåga; French plaie, Occitan plaga.

• enPR: plāg, IPA^(key): /pleɪɡ/

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• Rhymes: -eɪɡ

plague (countable and uncountable, plural plagues)

1. (often used with the, sometimes capitalized: the Plague) The bubonic plague, the pestilent disease caused by the virulent bacterium Yersinia pestis.
2. (pathology) An epidemic or pandemic caused by any pestilence, but specifically by the above disease.
3. A widespread affliction, calamity or destructive influx, especially when seen as divine retribution.

   Ten Biblical plagues over Egypt, ranging from locusts to the death of the crown prince, finally forced Pharaoh to let Moses's people go.

4. A grave nuisance, whatever greatly irritates

   Bart is an utter plague; his pranks never cease.

• pest, pestilence

plague (third-person singular simple present plagues, present participle plaguing, simple past and past participle plagued)

1. (transitive) To harass, pester or annoy someone persistently or incessantly.
   • 2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic‎, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, ISSN 0027-9358, OCLC 1049714034, archived from the original on 14 June 2018:

     [W]hat we have here, they believe, are two members of gangs that have been plaguing Islington for more than a year. They snatch smartphones from pedestrians, then sell the items on the black market.

   • 2015 April 15, Jonathan Martin, “For a Clinton, It’s Not Hard to Be Humble in an Effort to Regain Power”, in The New York Times‎:

     Just as Mr. Clinton began a comeback with a down-home plea for forgiveness, Mrs. Clinton now seems determined to prove, perhaps to the point of overcompensation, that she will not repeat the mistakes that plagued her 2008 campaign.

2. (transitive) To afflict with a disease or other calamity.

   Natural catastrophes plagued the colonists till they abandoned the pestilent marshland.

• plagued
• plaguer

plague

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of plagar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of plagar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of plagar.