pest
Plural: pests
Noun
- An annoying person, thing, or insect that bothers others.
- a serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea that has bitten an infected animal
- any epidemic disease with a high death rate
- a persistently annoying person
- any unwanted and destructive insect or other animal that attacks food or crops or livestock etc.
- "he sprayed the garden to get rid of pests"
- "many pests have developed resistance to the common pesticides"
- A pestilence, i.e. a deadly epidemic, a deadly plague.
- Any destructive insect that attacks crops or livestock; an agricultural pest.
- An annoying person, a nuisance.
- An animal regarded as a nuisance, destructive, or a parasite, vermin.
- An invasive weed.
Examples
- The repeated challenge of his valid words was becoming a real PEST.
Origin / Etymology
In the 16th century in the sense of "pestilence" and specifically bubonic plague from Middle French peste (“pestilence”) (whence French peste). The other meanings are recorded soon after. Ultimately from Latin pestis.
Scrabble Score: 6
pest: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordpest: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
pest: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary
Words With Friends Score: 7
pest: valid Words With Friends Word