pest
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pest/pest/
▶noun
- 1 a destructive insect or other animal that attacks crops, food, or livestock.
- 2 informal an annoying person or thing.
- 3 (the pest) archaic bubonic plague.
– origin C15: from Fr. peste or L. pestis ‘plague’.
'pest' also found in these Oxford entries:
biological control
- blackfly
- bollworm
- cane toad
- cockchafer
- curculio
- eelworm
- flea beetle
- fowl pest
- frit fly
- Hessian fly
- Japanese beetle
- meal beetle
- mealy bug
- medfly
- pesky
- pester
- pest-house
- pestilential
- pharaoh ant
- phylloxera
- pine beauty
- rat
- rinderpest
