▪ I. plague, n.
(pleɪg)
Forms: 4 plaage, 4–7 plage, 6 plag, Sc. plagge, plaig, 6– plague, (7 plauge).
[ME. plage, a. OF. plage (14th c.), plague (15th c.) stroke, wound, ad. L. plāga stroke, wound (= Doric Gr. πλᾱγά, Attic πληγή stroke, blow), in late L. plague, pestilence, infection (Vulgate), f. root plag- of L. plangĕre, Gr. πλήγνυναι, πλήσσειν to strike.
OF. plage and plague were learned formations on L. plaga, the phonetic descendant of which was plaie wound.]
† 1. A blow, a stroke; a wound. Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif Ezek. xxiv. 16, Y take fro thee the desyrable thing of thin eyen in plage [gloss or wounde, Vulg. in plaga, 1611 with a stroke]. ― Luke xii. 47 Forsothe thilke seruaunt that knew the wille of his lord..schal be betun with many woundis [v.r. plagis, or woundis]. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 31 Plage comounly is taken for an oold wounde. 1538 Pole in Strype Eccl. Mem. I. App. lxxxiii. 208 You say, I make many plagues, but lay little or no salve to heal them..In very deed I make never a plage, when I discover those that be made already. |
2. a. An affliction, calamity, evil, ‘scourge’;
esp. a visitation of divine anger or justice, a divine punishment; often with reference to ‘the ten plagues’ of
Egypt.| 1382 Wyclif Rev. ix. 18 Of thes thre plagis the thridde paart of men is slayn, of fijr, and of smoke, and of brunston. Ibid. xvi. 21 Men blasfemeden God for the plage of hayl. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 329 Egipte was smyten with x. plages and diseases. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. viii. 23 As the bub or plaig of fell tempest,..Drivis by fors throw the sey to the land. 1535 Coverdale Exod. ix. 14 Let my people go,..els wyll I at this tyme sende all my plages [Wyclif veniaunces]..vpon thy people. 1540–54 Croke Ps. (Percy Soc.) 43 From all plags safe thy house shalbe. 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, For fayre wether, This plague of rayne and waters. 1600 Hamilton in Cath. Tractates (S.T.S.) 245 God of his mercie remoue thir plagges from yow al. 1607 Hieron Wks. I. 452 Sometime the plage lighteth vpon him, which Dauid prayed for vpon his enemies. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 346 The inhabitants turn what seems a plague to their own advantage. Locusts are eaten. 1847 Grote Greece ii. xiii. III. 238 A plague of gnats. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xii. III. 216 The plague of the brass money. |
b. In weakened sense: Anything causing trouble, annoyance, or vexation; a nuisance;
colloq. trouble.
| 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies v. xxv. 400 In the province of Chiquito, even at this day they meete with this plague of Confessors or Ychuris. 1754 Richardson Grandison II. xvii. 181 She has her plagues in giving me plague. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxvi, Deil a brute or body about my house but I can manage when I like..; but I can seldom be at the plague. c 1825 Houlston Juvenile Tracts xviii. Imag. Troubles 9 She disliked stiles, she found it such a plague to get over them. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. ix, The plague of the thing is, nobody could drive a carriage there to-night but me. 1855 Delamer Kitch. Gard. (1861) 92 Spinach is an annual, whose tendency to run to seed in dry weather makes it the plague of the gardener. |
c. Applied to a person or animal (in serious, or in weakened sense:
cf. b).
| 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utop. i. (1895) 53 That one couetous and vnsatiable cormaraunte and verye plage of his natyue contrey. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 77 Speakynge here..of the Cardinall of Yorke, he calleth hym the plage of Englande. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 237 This flying Plague (to mark its quality); Oestros the Grecians call: Asylus, we. 1707 Reflex. upon Ridicule ii. 369 What a Plague to Society is a Man who has written a Book. 1881 ‘Rita’ My Lady Coquette ii, Arthur, you plague, why don't you find something to do? |
3. A general name for any malignant disease with which men or beasts are stricken.
† a. An individual affliction or disease.
Obs. In Bible translations used, after
plaga of the Vulgate, for the ‘infliction’ of leprosy, and also in the 1611 version for the external diseased spots.
| 1382 Wyclif Lev. xiii. 2 A man in whos skynne and flesh were sprongun dyuerse colour, or bleyne, other eny thing liȝtyng, that is to seie, a plaage of lepre, he shal be brouȝt forth to Aaron. 1460–70 Bk. Quintessence 24 Þese plagis of pestilence þat ben vncurable. 1526 Tindale Mark v. 29 She felt in her body that she was healed off the plage. 1611 Bible Lev. xiii. 3 The Priest shall looke on the plague in the skinne of the flesh: and when the haire in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper then the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosie. 1672 J. Josselyn New Eng. Rarities 3 That sad Disease called there the Plague of the Back, but with us Empiema. |
b. esp. An infectious disease or epidemic attended with great mortality; a pestilence.
| 1548–9 [see 4]. 1552 Bk. Com. Prayer (Heading of prayer), In the tyme of any common plague or sickeness. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 722 From the vicious Air, and sickly Skies, A Plague did on the dumb Creation rise. 1738 Wesley Psalms xci. v, Nor to thy healthful Dwelling shall Any infectious Plague draw nigh. 1807 Med. Jrnl. XVII. 338 Instructions how to communicate and to treat this plague [small-pox]. 1866 [see cattle-plague]. 1871 G. H. Napheys Prev. & Cure Dis. i. viii. 246 The famous ‘plagues’, which ravaged Europe, were forms of typhus fever. 1887 T. F. Tout in Dict. Nat. Biog. IX. 414/1 The ‘yellow plague’ which was then [an. 664] devastating Northumbria. |
c. spec. the plague: the oriental or bubonic plague. (
Cf. pest 1.) Also
colloq. phr. to avoid like (or as) the plague, to avoid at all costs, to shun completely.
| [1564 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 279 The plaig of the pestilence maist vehementlie regnis in Danskin.] 1601 Dolman La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1618) III. 802 Their sharpe iuice is very good against the plague. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 323 The Plague is a disease venomous and contagious. 1665 Pepys Diary 22 July, His servant died of a bubo on his right groine, and two spots on his right thigh, which is the plague. 1722 De Foe Plague 1 It was about the beginning of September, 1664, that I..heard..that the plague was returned again in Holland. 1799 Med. Jrnl. I. 411 No nation was ever long engaged in a war with the Turks without taking the plague. 1835 T. Moore in Byron Wks. XV. 133 Saint Augustine..avoided the school as the plague. 1841 Lane Arab. Nts. I. 61 Some Muslims even shut themselves up during the prevalence of plague. 1876 J. S. Bristowe The. & Pract. Med. (1878) 190 Plague. (Pestilentia.)..A contagious fever, closely resembling typhus in its symptoms, but distinguished from it by the absence of any true rash, and by the development of buboes and carbuncles. 1936 ‘N. Blake’ Thou Shell of Death xv. 283 O'Brien was the sort of person you'd think would avoid road-houses like the plague. 1973 A. Broinowski Take One Ambassador iv. 47, I avoid the place like the plague. 1979 ‘E. Peters’ One Corpse too Many ii. 35, I will avoid him like the plague. |
d. In imprecations:
a plague take,
plague on, upon, of, may a pestilence or mischief take or light upon; also in exclamations of impatience:
what the (a) plague,
how the plague.
Cf. pest 1 b,
pestilence 4,
pox, etc.
| a 1566 Edwards Damon & Pythias in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 102 A plague take Damon and Pithias! 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. i. 94, I am hurt. A plague a both the Houses. 1596 ― 1 Hen. IV, ii. ii. 39 What a plague meane ye to colt me thus? a 1704 T. Brown Sat. Fr. King Wks. 1730 I. 59 Now, what the plague becomes of jure divino? 1713 Swift Frenzy J. Dennis Wks. 1755 III. i. 143 Plague on't. I am damnably afraid,..he is mad in earnest. 1768 Goldsm. Good-n. Man iv. i, What the plague do you send me of your fool's errand for? 1870 tr. Erckmann-Chatrian's Waterloo 116 There he is come back worse than ever—plague on him. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. (chiefly from 3 c):
a. Simple attributive, as
plague bacillus,
plague botch,
plague contagion,
plague corpuscle,
plague death,
plague den,
plague germ,
plague infection,
plague nurse,
plague patient,
plague scare,
plague time,
plague virus,
plague year, etc.
| 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion of Sick, Specially in the plague tyme. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. viii. 41 That in the plague time no shippe..do enter into their port. 1841 H. Ainsworth Old St. Paul's II. 154 A closed litter,..evidently containing a plague-patient. 1881 Tyndall Floating Matter of Air 12 Pasteur proved that the plague-corpuscles might be incipient in the egg. 1891 C. Creighton Hist. Epidemics 500 The whole mortality was 452, of which by far the most were plague-burials. Ibid. 362 The years 1545 and 1546 were also plague-years in Scotland. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 28 Oct. 4/2 A plague officer,..while on plague duty, has been stoned to death at Hindupur. 1898 P. Manson Trop. Diseases viii. 163 Kitasato has stated that the plague bacillus perishes in four days when dried on cover-glasses. |
b. instrumental, objective, etc., as
plague-beleaguered,
plague-breeding,
plague-free,
plague-infected,
plague-infested,
plague-killed,
plague-poisoning,
plague-proof,
plague-ridden,
plague-smitten,
plague-stricken,
plague-stuffed, etc.
adjs.| 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. iv. ii. 1699 A plague stuffed Cloake-bagge of all iniquitie. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 34 Nor sword, nor famine, nor plague-poisoning air. 1722 De Foe Plague (1756) 265 The People of London thought themselves so Plague-free now, that they were past all Admonitions. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxxiii, As in a plague-beleaguered town. 1864 Atlantic Monthly XIII. 279 Haply from the street To bear a wretch plague-stricken. 1884 Pall Mall G. 19 Sept. 4/1 A plague-proof variety has alone survived. 1897 Review of Rev. 5 The rinderpest..introduced..by plague-smitten cattle. 1898 P. Manson Trop. Diseases viii. 151 He found in the soil forming the floor of plague-haunted houses..a bacterium. 1902 Chambers's Jrnl. Sept. 603/2 At last they all shunned Prussia as though it were plague-ridden. 1909 Kipling Rewards & Fairies (1910) 258, I had spent the week past among our plague⁓stricken. 1933 W. de la Mare Fleeting 27 Bring morning to blossom again Out of plague-ridden night. 1938 M. K. Rawlings Yearling xxi. 267 Penny examined the plague⁓killed deer. 1950 T. S. Eliot Cocktail Party iii. 156 And just for a handful of plague-stricken natives who would have died anyway. 1951 Whitby & Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 5) xviii. 303 Search for plague-infected rats is therefore an important part of public health work in ports and endemic areas. 1957 Canad. Jrnl. Econ. & Polit. Sci. XXIII. 3 In May, 1720, a ship coming from a plague-infested port in Syria brought the deadly disease to Marseilles. |
c. Special combinations:
plague-bill, an official return of the deaths caused by the plague in any district;
plague-cake, an amulet worn as a protection against the plague;
plague-flea, one of several fleas,
esp. Xenopsylla cheopsis, which transmit the plague bacillus,
Pasteurella pestis, from the rat to man;
plague-house, a house marked as having inmates infected with the plague;
plague-mark = plague-spot 1 (Webster 1864);
plague pipe, a small clay pipe in which tobacco was smoked as a disinfectant during the great plague of 1665;
plague pit, a deep pit for the common burial of plague victims;
plague-rat, a rat carrying plague;
plague saint, a saint especially invoked by those afflicted with the plague;
† plague-stripe = plague-spot 1;
† plague-water, an infusion of various herbs and roots in spirits of wine, of supposed efficacy against the plague. See also
plague-sore,
plague-spot.
| 1891 C. Creighton Hist. Epidemics 295 There are two other *plague-bills extant, for August 1535. |
| 1604 F. Herring Mod. Defence B iv, Empoisoned Amulets, or *Plague-cakes. |
| 1908 Westm. Gaz. 11 Jan. 2/1 Is it generally known that the *plague-flea lives on the small brown rat? 1936 Discovery Feb. 41/1 The plague flea..still persists at most of our ports on the black or ship-rat. |
| 1665 Pepys Diary 28 June, I observed several *plague houses in King's Street. |
| 1892 Daily News 30 May 3/1 The small ‘*plague’, or ‘elfin’ pipes, as they are variously called, of the time of the Restoration. 1901 Westm. Gaz. 22 May 8/2 Some ‘Plague pipes’, so called owing to their being smoked at the time of the great Plague of London, were excavated at Hackney yesterday. |
| 1841 H. Ainsworth Old St. Paul's I. 300 In Finsbury fields..*plague-pits had been digged and pest-houses erected. |
| 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 791/1 *Plague-rats have rarely been found in ships sailing from infected ports. 1978 R. Westall Devil on Road xv. 116 It's the Plague Rat—the rat that caused the Great Plague of London in 1665. |
| 1898 Daily News 1 June 3/6 Venice is..saved by the intercession of her patron, St. Mark, her local *plague-saints, Sebastian and Rocco. |
| 1713 Spregnell in Phil. Trans. XXVIII. 124 Vibices, or *Plague-Stripes, were infallible Signs of Death. |
| 1665 Pepys Diary 20 July, My Lady Carteret did this day give me a bottle of *plague-water home with me. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Water, Plague-Water, Aqua epidemica, is prepared from the roots of masterwort, angelica, pyony, and butter-bur; viper-grass, Virginia-snakeroot, rue, rosemary, baum, [etc.]; the whole is infused in spirit of wine, and distilled. |
▪ II. plague, v. (
pleɪg)
[f. plague n. Cf. late L. plāgāre to strike, wound. So Ger., Du. plagen. (Caxton's spelling plaghe was from MDu. plaghen.] 1. trans. To afflict with plague or calamity (
esp. in reference to divine punishment); to torment, harass. Perh. sometimes, like L.
plāgāre, to strike (
quots. 1538, 1545). Now
rare or
arch.| 1481 Caxton Reynard xxviii. (Arb.) 70, I shold do grete synne..I am aferde god sholde plaghe me [orig. Ick hebbe anxt god die soude mi plaghen]. 1535 Coverdale Jer. xv. 4, I will scatre them aboute also in all kingdomes and londes to be plaged. 1538 Bale Brefe Com. in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) I. 212 Though he to thys daye hath plaged man with the rod. 1545 Primer Hen. VIII in Three Primers (1848) 501, I am all to plaged and beaten. 1567 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 571 The cornis of this instant yeir..being at Goddis plesour plagit and spilt with weit. 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 539 This Countrey..plagued with three bad neighbours, viz. the Turkes, the Tartars, and the Cassoks. 1667 Milton P.L. vi. 505 Some one..inspir'd With dev'lish machination might devise Like instrument to plague the Sons of men For sin. 1787 Bentham Def. Usury x. 98 Christians were too intent on plaguing Jews. 1862 Goulburn Pers. Relig. ii. (1873) 15 A Constitution plagued with sickness. |
2. In weakened sense (chiefly
colloq.).
a. To ‘torment’, trouble, vex, tease, bother, annoy.
| 1594 Spenser Amoretti xli, If her nature and her wil be so That she will plague the man that loves her most. 1637 Bastwick Litany i. 21, I will..so plauge the Metropolicallity of Yorke and Canterbury. 1658 A. Fox tr. Würtz' Surg. ii. xii. 94 Patients in this case are commonly plagued with a cough. 1727 Gay Begg. Op. i. viii, Husbands and wives..plaguing one another. 1767 Woman of Fashion II. 171 What a dickens would you have more!.. I won't hear you, I won't be plagued. 1833 H. Martineau Tale of Tyne ii. 33 The big boys used to plague him, and he plagued the little ones. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxv. 237, I cannot be plagued with this child any longer! It's past all bearing. |
b. Phr.
to plague the life out of and
varr., to tease or torment excessively.
| 1834 A. Marsh Two Old Men's Tales II. 46 You are so odd that you would plague the life out of a woman that loved you. 1868 L. M. Alcott Little Women I. xiii. 213 ‘If ever I do get my wish, you see what I'll do for Brooke.’ ‘Begin to do something now, by not plaguing his life out,’ said Meg, sharply. 1894 V. Hunt Maiden's Progress iii. 17 Moderna..plagues the other children's lives out with making them give her her cues, at all times and seasons. |
3. To infect with plague or pestilent disease.
rare.
| c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. xci. ii, The noisome blast that plaguing straies Untoucht shall passe thee by. 1633, 1894 [see plagued below]. |
Hence
plagued (
pleɪgd)
ppl. a., afflicted, tormented; infected with plague (in
quot. 1728 ‘confounded’, ‘cursed’; ‘plaguy’; so
plegged in
U.S. dial.,
quot. 1887);
ˈplaguing vbl. n. and ppl. a.| 1575 Churchyard Chippes (1817) 180 Make place for plaints, giue rowme for plagued men. 1581 J. Derricke Image Irel. ii. E iv. marg., The ioye of rebbelles is in plagyng of true men. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, v. iii. 39 A plaguing mischeefe light on Charles, and thee. 1633 in Rushw. Hist. Coll. (1680) II. 240, I will not set him at liberty no more than a plagued Man or a mad Dog. 1728 P. Walker Life Peden Pref. (1827) 26 Following the wicked..Example of their old plagued Resolution-Fathers. 1887 J. C. Harris Free Joe, etc. (1888) 113 That pleggëd old cat's a-tryin' to drink out'n the water-bucket. Ibid. 172 Where a man can't afford to be too plegged particular. 1894 Outing (U.S.) July 320/2 My..friends set out for Dover and the cholera-plagued Continent. |
▪ III. plague var. of
plage Obs.,
playock Sc.