scourge

From Old French escorgier (“to whip”), from Vulgar Latin excorrigiare, consisting of ex- (“thoroughly”) + corrigia (“thong, whip”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /skɜːdʒ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /skɜɹdʒ/
  • (US, also) IPA^(key): /skɔɹdʒ/

• Audio (US)

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  Rhymes: -ɜː(r)dʒ

scourge (plural scourges)

1. A source of persistent trouble such as pestilence that causes pain and suffering or widespread destruction.

   Graffiti is the scourge of building owners everywhere.

2. A means to inflict such pain or destruction.
   • Shakespeare

     What scourge for perjury / Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?

   • 2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8838, page 11:

     America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 ([…]): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.

3. A whip, often of leather.

   He flogged him with a scourge.

   • Chapman

     Up to coach then goes / The observed maid, takes both the scourge and reins.

scourge (third-person singular simple present scourges, present participle scourging, simple past and past participle scourged)

1. To strike with a scourge; to flog.

• (to whip or scourge): Thesaurus:whip

• scourge in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• “scourge” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

• scrouge