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pestilent

American  
[pes-tl-uhnt] / ˈpɛs tl ənt /

adjective

  1. producing or tending to produce infectious or contagious, often epidemic, disease; pestilential.

  2. destructive to life; deadly; poisonous.

  3. injurious to peace, morals, etc.; pernicious.

  4. troublesome, annoying, or mischievous.

pestilent British  
/ ˈpɛstɪlənt /

adjective

  1. annoying; irritating

  2. highly destructive morally or physically; pernicious

  3. infected with or likely to cause epidemic or infectious disease

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • antipestilent adjective
  • antipestilently adverb
  • nonpestilent adjective
  • nonpestilently adverb
  • pestilently adverb
  • unpestilent adjective
  • unpestilently adverb

Etymology

Origin of pestilent

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin pestilent- (stem of pestilēns ) unhealthy, noxious, alteration of pestilentus, equivalent to pesti- (stem of pestis ) pest + -lentus -lent

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.