Definition of "pestilence" []

• A usually fatal epidemic disease, especially bubonic plague. (noun)
• A pernicious, evil influence or agent. (noun)

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.

• "So the Lord ... sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it -- The infliction only of the pestilence is here noticed, without any account of its duration or its ravages, while a minute description is given of the visible appearance and menacing attitude of the destroying angel."
• "I was much struck too with the dirtiness of the people of Palmyra, which dirtiness results in pestilence, ophthalmia, and plagues of flies."
• "The men disdainfully repelled the idea of having deserted the defence of their city; and one, the youngest among them, in answer to the taunt of a sailor, exclaimed, Take it, Christian dogs! take the palaces, the gardens, the mosques, the abode of our fathers -- take plague with them; pestilence is the enemy we fly; if she be your friend, hug her to your bosoms."