scourge
noun/skɜːdʒ/
/skɜːrdʒ/
- [usually singular] scourge (of somebody/something) (formal) a person or thing that causes trouble, difficulty or mental pain
- the scourge of war/disease/poverty
- Inflation was the scourge of the 1970s.
Extra Examples- He is well-known as a scourge of the Establishment.
- The Green Party sees the motor car as a scourge on society.
- freeing the world from the scourge of nuclear weapons
- taking action against the growing scourge of hunger
- a whip used to punish people in the past
Word OriginMiddle English: shortening of Old French escorge (noun), escorgier (verb), from Latin ex- ‘thoroughly’ + corrigia ‘thong, whip’.
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scourge