- (also the plague)(also bubonic plague)[uncountable] a disease spread by rats that causes a high temperature, swellings (= areas that are larger and rounder than usual) on the body and usually death
- a decline in population following outbreaks of plague
Extra ExamplesTopics Health problemsc1- Fleas spread plague from animals to humans.
- Nearly a third of the population died in the Great Plague.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- bubonic
- great
- outbreak
- suffer
- spread
- be decimated by
- …
- break out
- start
- strike (something)
- …
- plague of
- [countable] any disease that spreads quickly and kills a lot of people synonym epidemic
- the plague of AIDS
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- bubonic
- great
- outbreak
- suffer
- spread
- be decimated by
- …
- break out
- start
- strike (something)
- …
- plague of
- [countable] plague of something large numbers of an animal or insect that come into an area and cause great damage
- a plague of locusts/rats, etc.
Extra ExamplesTopics Insects, worms, etc.c2- The city is suffering a plague of rats.
- The region has just suffered a plague of locusts.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- bubonic
- great
- outbreak
- suffer
- spread
- be decimated by
- …
- break out
- start
- strike (something)
- …
- plague of
Word Originlate Middle English: Latin plaga ‘stroke, wound’, probably from Greek (Doric dialect) plaga, from a base meaning ‘strike’.
Idioms
See plague in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryavoid somebody/something like the plague
- (informal) to try very hard not to meet somebody, do something, etc.
- She's been avoiding me like the plague since the party last Saturday.
- I hate office parties—I avoid them like the plague.
Check pronunciation:
plague