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Definition of "pestilential" [pes•ti•len•tial]

  • Pestilent. See Synonyms at poisonous. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "pestilential" in a sentence
  • "In comments on his table, Potter says that he has doubtless included mention of many plagues which, although described under that name, are probably a dissimilar disease, writers having applied the terms pestilential and pestilent in a generic sense to diseases specifically different."
  • "It is the spirit which incarcerates unfortunate prisoners of honorable warfare in pestilential holds, stifles them with thirst, starvation, diseased meats, if not slow poisons, and plants tons of gunpowder under them that, in case of inability to retain them, they might be blown to atoms at the mere touch of a match."
  • "18.3 In comments on his table, Potter says that he has doubtless included mention of many plagues which, although described under that name, are probably a dissimilar disease, writers having applied the terms pestilential and pestilent in a generic sense to diseases specifically different."