blight

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Something that spoils or damages a situation, place, or life.

   Poverty was a blight on the whole neighbourhood for years.

2. 2
   verb

   To spoil or ruin something, or hold back its growth.

   Those tattoos could blight her chances of getting the job.

3. 3
   noun

   A plant disease, often caused by a fungus, that quickly kills leaves and stems.

   Potato blight destroyed nearly the entire crop that year.

The etymology of the noun is uncertain; suggested derivations include the following: * possibly related to Middle English blichening (“mildew or rust on grain, blight”), possibly related to Middle English bliken (“to gleam, shine; to turn pale”), from Old English blīcan (“to shine, sparkle”) (whence modern English blike (“(obsolete) to gleam, shine”); also compare Old Norse blikna (“to grow pallid”)), from Proto-West Germanic *blīkan (“to shine”), from Proto-Germanic *blīkaną (“to gleam, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”); or * since sense 2.2 refers to a diseased conditio…

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