Adjacent Words

Pestiferous definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PESTIF'EROUS, a. [L. pestis, plague, and fero, to produce.]
1. Pestilential; noxious to health; malignant; infectious; contagious.
2. Noxious to peace, to morals or to society; mischievous; destructive.
3. Troublesome; vexatious.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: contaminated with infecting organisms; "dirty wounds"; "obliged to go into infected rooms"- Jane Austen [syn: dirty, pestiferous]
2: likely to spread and cause an epidemic disease; "a pestilential malignancy in the air"- Jonathan Swift; "plaguey fevers" [syn: pestilent, pestilential, pestiferous, plaguey]
3: tending to corrupt or pervert [syn: corruptive, perversive, pestiferous]
4: causing irritation or annoyance; "tapping an annoying rhythm on his glass with his fork"; "aircraft noise is particularly bothersome near the airport"; "found it galling to have to ask permission"; "an irritating delay"; "nettlesome paperwork"; "a pesky mosquito"; "swarms of pestering gnats"; "a plaguey newfangled safety catch"; "a teasing and persistent thought annoyed him"; "a vexatious child"; "it is vexing to have to admit you are wrong" [syn: annoying, bothersome, galling, irritating, nettlesome, pesky, pestering, pestiferous, plaguy, plaguey, teasing, vexatious, vexing]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Latin pestifer pestilential, noxious, from pestis + -fer -ferous Date: 15th century 1. dangerous to society ; pernicious 2. a. carrying or propagating infection ; pestilential b. infected with a pestilential disease 3. troublesome, annoying • pestiferously adverb • pestiferousness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 noxious; pestilent. 2 harmful; pernicious; bearing moral contagion. Etymology: L pestifer, -ferus (as PEST)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pestiferous Pes*tif"er*ous, a. [L. pestiferus, pestifer; pestis pest + ferre to bear: cf. F. pestif[`e]re.] 1. Pest-bearing; pestilential; noxious to health; malignant; infectious; contagious; as, pestiferous bodies. ``Poor, pestiferous creatures begging alms.'' --Evelyn. ``Unwholesome and pestiferous occupations.'' --Burke. 2. Noxious to peace, to morals, or to society; vicious; hurtful; destructive; as, a pestiferous demagogue. Pestiferous reports of men very nobly held. --Shak.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Pestilential, infectious, contagious, pest-bearing, infected, malignant, morbific. 2. Noxious, mischievous, venomous, malignant, vexatious, troublesome, malign, injurious, destructive.

Moby Thesaurus

aggravating, annoying, bad, bad for, baneful, bothering, bothersome, catching, communicable, contagious, contaminated, deadly, destructive, disturbing, endemic, envenomed, epidemial, epidemic, epiphytotic, epizootic, exasperating, foul, galling, harassing, harmful, importunate, importune, infectious, infective, injurious, inoculable, insalubrious, insanitary, irking, irksome, irritating, malign, malignant, mephitic, miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic, morbific, noisome, noxious, pandemic, pathogenic, peccant, pesky, pestering, pestilent, pestilential, plaguesome, plaguey, plaguing, poisonous, polluted, provoking, septic, sporadic, spreading, tainted, taking, teasing, tiresome, tormenting, toxic, toxicant, toxiferous, troublesome, troubling, unhealthful, unhealthy, unhygienic, unsanitary, unwholesome, venenate, veneniferous, venenous, venomous, vexatious, vexing, virulent, wearisome, worrisome, worrying, zymotic