scourge

English

Etymology

From Old French escorgier (“to whip”), from Vulgar Latin excorrigiāre, consisting of ex- + Latin corrigia (“thong,whip”)

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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  Rhymes: -ɜː(r)dʒ

Noun

scourge (countable and uncountable; plural scourges)

1. (uncountable) A persistent pest, illness, or source of trouble, (figurative) cause of suffering to people.

   Graffiti is the scourge of building owners everywhere.

2. A whip often of leather.

   He flogged him with a scourge.

Translations

a persistent pest, illness, or source of trouble

Arabic: وباء (ar), بَلْوَى (ar) Armenian: պատուհաս (hy) (patuhas) Danish: svøbe (da) c. Finnish: vitsaus (fi), maanvaiva (fi) French: fléau (fr) m. German: Plage (de), Geißel (de) Norwegian: Bokmål: svøpe (no) m.

Portuguese: flagelo (pt) m. Romanian: flagel (ro) Russian: бич (ru) (bič) m., бедствие (ru) (b'édstvije) n., беда (ru) (b'edá) f., кара (ru) (kára) f. Spanish: azote (es) m. Swedish: gissel (sv) n., plåga (sv) c.

a whip often of leather

Arabic: سوط (ar) Danish: svøbe (da) c. Dutch: gesel (nl) Finnish: piiska (fi), ruoska (fi) German: Geißel (de)

Norwegian: Bokmål: svøpe (no) m. Russian: бич (ru) (bič) m., плеть (ru) (pl'et') f. Spanish: flagelo (es) m. Swedish: gissel (sv) n.

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

• German: Geißel
• Hebrew: פגע

Verb

scourge (third-person singular simple present scourges, present participle scourging, simple past and past participle scourged)

1. To strike with a scourge.

Translations

to strike with a scourge

Danish: plage (da) Dutch: geselen (nl) Indonesian: mencambuki

Portuguese: flagelar (pt) Russian: бичевать (ru), бить (ru) плетью Spanish: escoria (es)

See also

• Scourge on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• scourge in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.