Adjacent Words

Pestilential definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PESTILEN'TIAL, a. Partaking of the nature of the plague or other infectious disease; as a pestilential fever.
1. Producing or tending to produce infectious disease; as pestilential vapors.
2. Mischievous; destructive; pernicious.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: likely to spread and cause an epidemic disease; "a pestilential malignancy in the air"- Jonathan Swift; "plaguey fevers" [syn: pestilent, pestilential, pestiferous, plaguey]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 14th century 1. a. causing or tending to cause pestilence ; deadly b. of or relating to pestilence 2. morally harmful ; pernicious 3. giving rise to vexation or annoyance ; irritating • pestilentially adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 of or relating to pestilence. 2 dangerous; troublesome; pestilent. Derivatives: pestilentially adv. Etymology: ME f. med.L pestilentialis f. L pestilentia (as PESTILENT)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pestilential Pes`ti*len"tial, a. [Cf. F. pestilentiel.] 1. Having the nature or qualities of a pestilence. ``Sends the pestilential vapors.'' --Longfellow. 2. Hence: Mischievous; noxious; pernicious; morally destructive. So pestilential, so infectious a thing is sin. --Jer. Taylor.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Pestilential is used to refer to things that cause disease or are caused by disease. (FORMAL) ...people who were dependent for their water supply on this pestilential stream. ...a pestilential fever. ADJ: ADJ n 2. Pestilential animals destroy crops or exist in such large numbers that they cause harm. (FORMAL) ADJ: ADJ n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Infectious, contagious, catching, malignant, poisonous, pestilent. 2. Pestiferous, pest-bearing. 3. Mischievous, destructive, ruinous, deadly, pernicious.