Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Pestilence
1.
Specifically, the disease known as the plague; hence, any contagious or infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating.
The
pestilence
that walketh in darkness. Ps. xci. 6.
2.
Fig.: That which is pestilent, noxious, or pernicious to the moral character of great numbers.
I’ll pour this
pestilence
into his ear. Shakespeare
Pestilence weed
(Bot.)
, the butterbur coltsfoot (
Petasites vulgaris
), so called because formerly considered a remedy for the plague. Dr. Prior.