an epidemic disease that causes high mortality; pestilence.
an infectious, epidemic disease caused by a bacterium, Yersinia pestis, characterized by fever, chills, and prostration, transmitted to humans from rats by means of the bites of fleas.Compare bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, septicemic plague.
any widespread affliction, calamity, or evil, especially one regarded as a direct punishment by God: a plague of war and desolation.
any cause of trouble, annoyance, or vexation: Uninvited guests are a plague.
verb (used with object),plagued,pla·guing.
to trouble, annoy, or torment in any manner: The question of his future plagues him with doubt.
to annoy, bother, or pester: Ants plagued the picnickers.
to smite with a plague, pestilence, death, etc.; scourge: those whom the gods had plagued.
to infect with a plague; cause an epidemic in or among: diseases that still plague the natives of Ethiopia.
to afflict with any evil: He was plagued by allergies all his life.
Origin of plague
1350–1400; Middle English plage<Latin plāga stripe, wound, Late Latin: pestilence
Is The Coronavirus A Plague?It's no surprise that some are wondering if the coronavirus is a plague. But what exactly is a plague, and why are we prone to liken the two immediately?
A highly infectious, usually fatal, epidemic disease; a pestilence.
A highly fatal infectious disease that is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, is transmitted primarily by the bite of a rat flea, and occurs in bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic forms.
Any of various highly infectious, usually fatal epidemic diseases.
An often fatal disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted to humans usually by fleas that have bitten infected rats or other rodents.♦ Bubonic plague, the most common type, is characterized by the tender, swollen lymph nodes called buboes, fever, clotting abnormalities of the blood, and tissue necrosis. An epidemic of bubonic plague in fourteenth-century Europe and Asia was known as the Black Death.