(~s, ~ing, ~ed)
1.
You can refer to something as a ~ when it causes great difficulties, and damages or spoils other things.
This discriminatory policy has really been a ~ on America...
Manchester still suffers from urban ~ and unacceptable poverty.
N-VAR: usu with supp
2.
If something ~s your life or your hopes, it damages and spoils them. If something ~s an area, it spoils it and makes it unattractive.
An embarrassing blunder nearly ~ed his career before it got off the ground.
...a strategy to redevelop ~ed inner-city areas.
VERB: V n, V-ed
3.
Blight is a disease which makes plants dry up and die.
N-UNCOUNT: also N in pl