pestilence

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pestilence

[pes´tĭ-lens]

a virulent contagious epidemic or infectious epidemic disease. adj., adj pestilen´tial.

pes·ti·lence

(pes'ti-lens),

1. Synonym(s): plague (2)

2. A virulent outbreak of any disease.

[L. pestilentia]

Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

pestilence

(pĕs′tə-ləns)

A usually fatal epidemic disease, especially bubonic plague.

pestilence

noun An obsolete, non-specific term for an epidemic with high mortality.

adjective Malodorous.

pes·ti·lence

(pes'ti-lĕns)

1. Synonym(s): plague (2) .

2. A virulent outbreak of any disease.

[L. pestilentia]

Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012

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References in classic literature ?

That night a procession passed, by torchlight, through the streets, bearing in the midst the figure of a woman, enveloped with a richly embroidered mantle; while in advance stalked Jervase Helwyse, waving the red flag of the pestilence. Arriving opposite the Province House, the mob burned the effigy, and a strong wind came and swept away the ashes.

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Yes, very sadly, a volume of plagues and pestilences predicted that this world has never witnessed before.

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In the 14th century, most citizens could not flee pestilences threatening their towns, but civil authorities sought to protect them by excluding suspected human carriers and merchandise from outside.

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George Washington made a momentous decision to inoculate all new recruits and finally halt the pestilences progress.

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We no longer call such diseases plagues or pestilences, but that does not alter or reduce their threat.

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The boom in fast travel and trade, jetting people and their goods from continent to continent in just hours, spreads wildlife pestilences just as it does human diseases.

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If the God of plagues and pestilences is out there, and if this God does not take kindly to the oppression of the weak and downtrodden, then I think I need to worry a lot.