Adjacent Words

Blight definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BLIGHT, n.
1. A disease incident to plants, affecting them variously. sometimes the whole plant perishes; sometimes only the leaves and blossoms, which will shrivel, as if scorched.
2. Any thing nipping or blasting.
In America, I have often heard a cutaneous eruption on the human skin called by the name of blights.
BLIGHT, v.t. To affect with blight; to blast; to prevent growth,and fertility; to frustrate.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a state or condition being blighted
2: any plant disease resulting in withering without rotting v
1: cause to suffer a blight; "Too much rain may blight the garden with mold" [syn: blight, plague]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: origin unknown Date: 1578 1. a. a disease or injury of plants marked by the formation of lesions, withering, and death of parts (as leaves and tubers) b. an organism (as an insect or a fungus) that causes blight 2. something that frustrates plans or hopes 3. something that impairs or destroys 4. a deteriorated condition <urban blight> II. verb Date: 1664 transitive verb 1. to affect (as a plant) with blight 2. to impair the quality or effect of <the condition that has blighted his son's life — Patricia Guthrie> intransitive verb to suffer from or become affected with blight

Britannica Concise

Any of various plant diseases whose symptoms include sudden and severe yellowing, browning, spotting, withering, or dying of leaves, flowers, fruit, stems, or the entire plant. Usually the shoots and other young, rapidly growing tissues of a plant are attacked. Most blights are caused by bacteria or fungi (see fungus); some result from drought. Fungal and bacterial blights are most likely under cool, moist conditions. Most economically important plants are susceptible to one or more blights. Measures taken to fight blight include destroying the infected plant parts; using disease-free seed or stock and resistant varieties; rotating crops (see crop rotation); pruning and spacing plants for better air circulation; controlling pests that carry the fungus from plant to plant; avoiding overhead watering and working among wet plants; and, where needed, applying fungicides or antibiotics. Maintaining sanitary conditions is the most important measure for stopping the spread of the infestation. See also chestnut blight.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 any plant disease caused by mildews, rusts, smuts, fungi, or insects. 2 any insect or parasite causing such a disease. 3 any obscure force which is harmful or destructive. 4 an unsightly or neglected urban area. --v.tr. 1 affect with blight. 2 harm, destroy. 3 spoil. Etymology: 17th c.: orig. unkn.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Blight Blight, v. i. To be affected by blight; to blast; as, this vine never blights.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Blight Blight (bl[imac]t), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blighted; p. pr. & vb. n. Blighting.] [Perh. contr. from AS. bl[=i]cettan to glitter, fr. the same root as E. bleak. The meaning ``to blight'' comes in that case from to glitter, hence, to be white or pale, grow pale, make pale, bleach. Cf. Bleach, Bleak.] 1. To affect with blight; to blast; to prevent the growth and fertility of. [This vapor] blasts vegetables, blights corn and fruit, and is sometimes injurious even to man. --Woodward. 2. Hence: To destroy the happiness of; to ruin; to mar essentially; to frustrate; as, to blight one's prospects. Seared in heart and lone and blighted. --Byron.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Blight Blight, n. 1. Mildew; decay; anything nipping or blasting; -- applied as a general name to various injuries or diseases of plants, causing the whole or a part to wither, whether occasioned by insects, fungi, or atmospheric influences. 2. The act of blighting, or the state of being blighted; a withering or mildewing, or a stoppage of growth in the whole or a part of a plant, etc. 3. That which frustrates one's plans or withers one's hopes; that which impairs or destroys. A blight seemed to have fallen over our fortunes. --Disraeli. 4. (Zo["o]l.) A downy species of aphis, or plant louse, destructive to fruit trees, infesting both the roots and branches; -- also applied to several other injurious insects. 5. pl. A rashlike eruption on the human skin. [U. S.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(blights, blighting, blighted) 1. You can refer to something as a blight when it causes great difficulties, and damages or spoils other things. This discriminatory policy has really been a blight on America... Manchester still suffers from urban blight and unacceptable poverty. N-VAR: usu with supp 2. If something blights your life or your hopes, it damages and spoils them. If something blights an area, it spoils it and makes it unattractive. An embarrassing blunder nearly blighted his career before it got off the ground. ...a strategy to redevelop blighted inner-city areas. VERB: V n, V-ed 3. Blight is a disease which makes plants dry up and die. N-UNCOUNT: also N in pl

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Pestilence (among plants), mildew, blast, withering. II. v. a. 1. Blast, wither, shrivel, kill, destroy, taint with mildew, cause to decay. 2. Disappoint, frustrate, blast, destroy, crush, annihilate, annul, bring to naught.

Moby Thesaurus

abnormality, abomination, abuse, acute disease, adverse circumstances, adversity, affection, afflict, affliction, aggravation, aggrieve, ailment, allergic disease, allergy, annoyance, atrocity, atrophy, bacterial disease, bad, bane, befoul, befoulment, bewitch, birth defect, blast, blast-freeze, botch, bummer, calamity, cancer, canker, cardiovascular disease, care, chronic disease, circulatory disease, complaint, complication, condemn, condition, congeal, congenital defect, corrupt, corruption, cross, crucify, crying evil, curse, damage, dash, defect, deficiency disease, defile, defilement, deformity, degenerative disease, deprave, despoil, despoliation, destroy, destruction, detriment, difficulties, difficulty, disability, disadvantage, disease, disorder, disserve, distemper, distress, do a mischief, do evil, do ill, do wrong, do wrong by, doom, downer, dry rot, endemic, endemic disease, endocrine disease, envenom, epidemic disease, evil, freeze, freeze solid, functional disease, fungus, fungus disease, gastrointestinal disease, genetic disease, get into trouble, glaciate, glacify, grievance, handicap, harass, hard knocks, hard life, hard lot, hardcase, hardship, harm, havoc, hereditary disease, hex, hurt, iatrogenic disease, ice, ill, illness, impair, indisposition, infect, infection, infectious disease, infest, infestation, infirmity, injure, injury, irritation, jinx, malady, malaise, maltreat, mar, menace, mildew, mischief, misfortune, mistreat, mold, molest, morbidity, morbus, moth, moth and rust, muscular disease, must, neurological disease, nip, nutritional disease, occupational disease, organic disease, outrage, pandemic disease, pathological condition, pathology, persecute, pest, pestilence, plague, plant disease, play havoc with, play hob with, plight, poison, pollute, pollution, predicament, prejudice, pressure, protozoan disease, psychosomatic disease, quick-freeze, refreeze, regelate, respiratory disease, rigor, rockiness, rot, ruin, rust, savage, scathe, scourge, sea of troubles, secondary disease, seediness, sickishness, sickness, signs, smut, spoil, stress, stress of life, symptomatology, symptomology, symptoms, syndrome, taint, the pip, the worst, threaten, torment, torture, toxin, trial, tribulation, trouble, troubles, urogenital disease, vale of tears, venom, vexation, vicissitude, violate, virus disease, wasting disease, wither, woe, worm, worm disease, wound, wreak havoc on, wreck, wrong