plague: 意味と定義

A widespread affliction or calamity, especially one seen as divine retribution.

A sudden destructive influx or injurious outbreak: a plague of locusts; a plague of accidents.

A cause of annoyance; a nuisance: "the plague of social jabbering” ( George Santayana).

A highly infectious, usually fatal, epidemic disease; a pestilence.

A highly fatal infectious disease that is caused by the bacterium Yersinia (syn. Pasturella ) pestis, is transmitted primarily by the bite of a rat flea, and occurs in bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic forms.

To pester or annoy persistently or incessantly. See Synonyms at harass.

To afflict with or as if with a disease or calamity: "Runaway inflation further plagued the wage- or salary-earner” ( Edwin O. Reischauer).