BLIGHT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Blight

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noun

Blight n.

Mildew; decay; anything nipping or blasting; applied as a general name to various injuries or diseases of plants, causing the whole or a part to wither, whether occasioned by insects, fungi, or atmospheric influences.

The act of blighting, or the state of being blighted; a withering or mildewing, or a stoppage of growth in the whole or a part of a plant, etc.

That which frustrates one's plans or withers one's hopes; that which impairs or destroys. "A blight seemed to have fallen over our fortunes."

(Zool.) A downy species of aphis, or plant louse, destructive to fruit trees, infesting both the roots and branches; also applied to several other injurious insects.

pl. A rashlike eruption on the human skin. (U. S.)

verb

Blight v. t. (past & past part. blighted; pres. part. blighting)

To affect with blight; to blast; to prevent the growth and fertility of. "(This vapor) blasts vegetables, blights corn and fruit, and is sometimes injurious even to man."

Hence: To destroy the happiness of; to ruin; to mar essentially; to frustrate; as, to blight one's prospects. "Seared in heart and lone and blighted."

Blight v. i. To be affected by blight; to blast; as, this vine never blights.

See images of 'Blight'

Etymology of 'Blight'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Blight" Quotes from Famous Books

... of the surf, under the skilful guidance of Congdon, the boat moved slowly along the line of beach to the line of cliff. All was open as the day. The blazing sun picked out each detail of jut and hollow. Evidently the poisonous vapours from the volcano had not spread their blight here, for the face of the precipice was bright with many flowers. So close in moved the boat that its occupants could even see butterflies fluttering above the bloom. But that which their eager eyes sought was still denied them. No opening offered in that smiling cliff-side. ...

— The Mystery • Stewart Edward White and Samuel Hopkins Adams

... guinea, shilling, tester, and penny he looks upon, from this day forth for evermore, be a blight to his eyes, and a canker to his heart! But I can't wish him a worse canker than what he has there already. Yes, he has a canker at heart! Is not he eaten up with envy? as all who look at him may read in that evil eye. Bad luck to the hour when it fixed ...

— Tales & Novels, Vol. 2 • Maria Edgeworth

... to destroy families as by a powerful blight, large and opulent slave-holding families, often vanish like a group of shadows at the third or fourth generation. This fact arrested my attention some years before I escaped from slavery, and of course ...

— The Fugitive Blacksmith - or, Events in the History of James W. C. Pennington • James W. C. Pennington

... knows, for I don't, though I mean to learn as soon as that child is in a condition to tell me. And then by the great guns something's going to let loose. I've talked with that stone image of a woman at Leslie Manor and I know what it can say. It isn't a woman; It's a blight upon the sex: A freak: It's stone, and when lightning strikes stone something bursts to smithereens. And by all that's powerful the lightning's going to strike this time. Thirty-five miles all alone in the dead of the night. Marshall I'm all bowled over. Good Lord! Good Lord!" The ...

— A Dixie School Girl • Gabrielle E. Jackson

... him. "Legislation and education. Legislation for the old and hardened, and education for the young and tender. I would tell the schoolboys and schoolgirls that alcohol will destroy the framework of their beautiful bodies, and that cruelty to any of God's living creatures will blight and destroy their ...

— Beautiful Joe • Marshall Saunders

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