Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Pestiferous
Pes-tif′er-ous
,Adj.
[L.
pestiferus
, pestifer
; pestis
pest + ferre
to bear: cf. F. pestifère
.] 1.
Pest-bearing; pestilential; noxious to health; malignant; infectious; contagious;
“Poor, pestiferous creatures begging alms.” as,
. pestiferous
bodiesEvelyn.
“Unwholesome and pestiferous occupations.” Burke.
2.
Noxious to peace, to morals, or to society; vicious; hurtful; destructive;
as, a
. pestiferous
demagoguePestiferous
reports of men very nobly held. Shakespeare
Webster 1828 Edition
Pestiferous
PESTIF'EROUS
,Adj.
1.
Pestilential; noxious to health; malignant; infectious; contagious.2.
Noxious to peace, to morals or to society; mischievous; destructive.3.
Troublesome; vexatious.Definition 2024
pestiferous
pestiferous
English
Adjective
pestiferous (comparative more pestiferous, superlative most pestiferous)
- containing organisms that cause contagious diseases
- 1589: Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations
- because he hath vouchsafed to preserue our nation from such fountains, from serpents and venemous wormes, & from al other pestiferous & contagious creatures.
- 1792: Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- In these solemn moments man discovers the germ of those vices, which like the Java tree shed a pestiferous vapour around--death is in the shade!
- 1853: Charles Dickens, Bleak House
- and bears the body of our dear brother here departed to a hemmed-in churchyard, pestiferous and obscene, whence malignant diseases are communicated to the bodies of our dear brothers and sisters who have not departed...
- 1589: Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations
- annoying, vexatious
- 1592: William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 1
- No, prelate; such is thy audacious wickedness, / Thy lewd, pestiferous, and dissentious pranks, / As very infants prattle of thy pride.
- 1896: Mark Twain, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
- and if any could have hanged his hindering and pestiferous council and set him free, he would have answered Joan's prayer and set her in the field.
- 1938: Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster, "Superman" in Action Comics #7, page 2:
- Lois rescues Clark from the pestiferous curly...
- 1592: William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 1
Synonyms
- (harboring disease, annoying): pestilent
Related terms
Translations
containing organisms that cause contagious diseases
annoying, vexatious
|
|
References
- ↑ “pestiferous” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).