# plague
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English plage, borrowed from Old French plage, from Latin plāga (“blow, wound”), from plangō (“to strike”). Cognate with Middle Dutch plāghe (> Dutch plaag), plāghen (> Dutch plagen); Middle Low German plāge; Middle High German plāge, pflāge (> German Plage); plāgen (> German plagen); Swedish plåga; French plaie, Occitan plaga. Doublet of plaga. Displaced native Old English wōl.

### Pronunciation

* enPR: plāg, IPA: /pleɪɡ/, [pʰl̥eɪɡ]
* (US, nonstandard) IPA: /plɛɡ/, [pʰɫ̥ɛːɡ]
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪɡ

### Noun

plague (countable and uncountable, plural plagues)
* (often used with the, sometimes capitalized: the Plague) The bubonic plague, the pestilent disease caused by the virulent bacterium Yersinia pestis.
** 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year‎:It was about the beginning of September, 1664, that I, among the rest of my neighbours, heard in ordinary discourse that the plague was returned again in Holland […] It mattered not from whence it came; but all agreed it was come into Holland again.
* (pathology) An epidemic or pandemic caused by any pestilence, but specifically by the above disease.
    Synonyms: pest, pestilence
* A widespread affliction, calamity, or destructive influx, especially when seen as divine retribution.
    Synonym: (archaic) murrain
    Ten Biblical plagues over Egypt, ranging from locusts to the death of the crown prince, finally forced Pharaoh to let Moses's people go.
** c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 64:A plague a both the Houſes, I am sped: / Is he gone and hath nothing?
* (figurative) A grave nuisance, whatever greatly irritates.
    Bart is an utter plague; his pranks never cease.
** 2022 April 30, Joe Biden, 0:36 from the start, in President Biden complete remarks at 2022 White House Correspondents' Dinner (C-SPAN)‎, Washington, D.C.: C-SPAN, archived from the original on 01 May 2022:This is the first time a President has attended this dinner in six years. It's understandable- we had a horrible plague, followed by two years of COVID!
* (ornithology) A group of common grackles.

#### Derived terms

* antiplague
* Australian plague locust
* avoid like the plague
* be at the plague
* bioplague
* bird plague
* Black Plague
* bubonic plague
* capacitor plague
* cattle plague
* fowl plague
* gay plague
* hog plague
* Kansas horse plague
* nonplague
* Pahvant Valley plague
* pig plague
* plague bird
* plague cross
* plague doctor
* plagueful
* plagueless
* plaguelike
* plaguer
* plague rat
* plague-ridden
* plaguesome
* plague spot
* plague water
* plaguey, plaguy
* plaguish
* pneumonic plague
* purple plague
* red plague
* Siberian plague
* stallion plague
* superplague
* the plague
* white plague

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

plague (third-person singular simple present plagues, present participle plaguing, simple past and past participle plagued)
* (transitive) To harass, pester or annoy someone persistently or incessantly.
    Synonyms: badger, harry, hound; see also Thesaurus:pester
** 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Chapter XXVI. Lady Marchmont to Sir Jasper Meredith.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 238:"Moreover," replied Congreve, "it was a sort of flattery to the duke. It showed that she valued the power of plaguing him more than her own fairest ornament. Flattery is the real secret by which a woman keeps her lover."
** 2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic‎, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 June 2018:[W]hat we have here, they believe, are two members of gangs that have been plaguing Islington for more than a year. They snatch smartphones from pedestrians, then sell the items on the black market.
** 2015 April 15, Jonathan Martin, “For a Clinton, It’s Not Hard to Be Humble in an Effort to Regain Power”, in The New York Times‎:Just as Mr. Clinton began a comeback with a down-home plea for forgiveness, Mrs. Clinton now seems determined to prove, perhaps to the point of overcompensation, that she will not repeat the mistakes that plagued her 2008 campaign.
* (transitive) To afflict with a disease or other calamity.
    Synonyms: scourge, torment
    Natural catastrophes plagued the colonists till they abandoned the pestilent marshland.

#### Derived terms

* plagued

#### Translations
## Spanish
### Verb

plague
* inflection of plagar:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative