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pest|pɛst|
[a. F. peste (R. Estienne 1539), ad. L. pest-is plague, pestilence, contagious disease.]
1. a. Any deadly epidemic disease; pestilence; spec. the bubonic plague: the common name of this in Sc. in the 16th–17th c. Now rare.
1568G. Skeyne The Pest A ij b, Ane pest is the corruption or infection of the Air. a1572Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 204 Moreover, within the Castell was the pest, (and diverse thairin dyed). a1613Overbury Newes, Answ. Countrey Newes Wks. (1856) 179 Living neere the church⁓yard, where many are buried of the pest. 1631Gouge God's Arrows i. §47. 83 In Latine pestis importeth as much, whence the Scots call this sicknesse the pest. 1637–50Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.) 468 After he had been but one yeare in Mr John Russell's house the pest came to Edinburgh. 1715–20Pope Iliad i. 192 Let fierce Achilles, dreadful in his rage, The god propitiate and the pest assuage. a1839Praed Poems (1864) II. 108 There came a dark infectious pest To break the hamlet's tranquil rest.
b. In imprecation: pest on or pest upon = may a plague light upon. [= F. (la) peste soit de.., peste de{ddd}]
1553Respublica v. ii. in Collier Illustr. O.E. Lit. I. 54 Res. Yea, bothe Mercie and Verytee. Avar. A peste on them bothe, saving my charitee. 1843Lytton Last Bar. iv. vi, ‘Pest on these Burgundians’, answered Clarence.
2. Any thing or person that is noxious, destructive, or troublesome; a bane, ‘curse’, ‘plague’:
a. a thing.
1621T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 64 Tortured with particular passions, and diuerse diseases, and pestes of the minde. 1632Lithgow Trav. vi. 260, I would..haue eaten of them; but the Friers forbade me, saying; they were the onely pest of Death vnto a stranger. 1755Johnson Dict. Pref. (ad fin.), The great pest of speech is frequency of translation. 1844Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. xvii. (1862) 282 Putting down the pest of corruption.
b. a person or animal. (Now the more usual application.)
1609James I Sp. at White-hall Wks. (1616) 531 They that perswade them the contrary, are vipers, and pests, both against them and the Commonwealth. 1676Lister in Ray's Corr. (1848) 125 This sort of men being the bane and pest of learning. 1709Steele Tatler No. 135 ⁋1 The Pests of Society, the Revilers of Humane Nature. 1852C. M. Yonge Cameos I. xl. 340 Philippe IV, the pest of France. 1865Livingstone Zambesi vi. 152 To extirpate these destructive pests [cockroaches]. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 867 Mosquitoes, harvest bugs, and similar pests.
3. attrib. and Comb., as pest-angel, pest control, pest place, pest spot, pest-worm; pest-free adj.; † pest-cart, the cart to carry away the bodies of the dead during a plague or pestilence; † pest-coach, a vehicle used to convey the infected to the pest-house; † pest-man, † pest-master, one in charge of the infected, or of the arrangements for getting rid of the plague; pest officer, one who is responsible for the control or extermination of animal pests; pest-ship, † (a) a ship for the reception of those suffering from the pest; (b) a ship having any infectious disease on board.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 216 In a generall pestilence they write..strange characters and wonderfull names, which (they say) are the names of *Pest-angels.
1603Dekker Wonderful Year Wks. (Grosart) I. 111 After the world had once run vpon the wheeles of the *Pest-cart. 1841W. H. Ainsworth Old St. Paul's II. 68 The doleful bell announcing the approach of the pest-cart.
1665Pepys Diary 3 Aug., They got one of the *pest-coaches, and put her into it, to carry her to a pest-house.
1931J. S. Huxley What dare I Think? i. 30 Dr Tillyard, now in charge of *pest control. 1947Nature 4 Jan. 32/1 The use of a highly refined petroleum oil for application to orchard trees..is firmly established as a valuable pest-control treatment with citrus. 1978A. Huxley Illustr. Hist. Gardening v. 179 Pest control by chemicals is often called warfare.
1944J. S. Huxley On Living in Revolution x. 111 Once more the goal is in sight.., the goal of *pest-free stores and stored materials. 1950Mind LIX. 161 An apple..of pleasing taste, high vitamin content and pest-free.
1613T. Godwin Rom. Antiq. (1625) 181 Three *Pest-men, which were to ouersee those that lay infected with any contagious sicknesse.
1642Fore-runner Revenge in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793) 275 He hath conferred with the skilfullest *pest-masters..who visit the bodies of those that die of the venom of the pest.
1963Times 9 Mar. 12/4 The hunting of deer was likely to be a more economic and efficient way of controlling them if the hounds were followed only by a small number of qualified foresters or *pest officers. 1976A. Price War Game i. vi. 115 He was..a cross between a high class refuse collector and the municipal pest officer.
1665Evelyn Diary 7 Sept., A *pest-ship, to wait on our infected men. 1895Edin. Rev. Apr. 263 The horrors of the holds of the pest-ship.
1872Baker Nile Tribut. viii. 110, I believe in holy shrines as the *pest spots of the world.
1848Eliza Cook My Own xiv, Do we not see the *pest-worm steal The rose of Beauty to destroy? |