PESTILENTIAL


Meaning of PESTILENTIAL in English

|pestə|lenchəl adjective

Etymology: Middle English pestilencial, from Medieval Latin pestilentialis, from Latin pestilentia pestilence + -alis -al

1.

a. : causing or tending to cause pestilence : deadly

a pestilential malignancy in the air — Jonathan Swift

b. : of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a pestilence

pestilential diseases

2. : morally harmful or injurious : pernicious

blow up the blind rage of the populace with a continued blast of pestilential libels — Edmund Burke

3. : giving rise to vexation or annoyance : irritating

the pestilential nuisances who write for autographs — W.S.Gilbert

• pes·ti·len·tial·ly -chəlē, -li adverb

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.