Scourge

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)dÊ’

Origin

From Old French escorgier ("to whip"), from Vulgar Latin excorrigere, consisting of ex- + Latin corrigo ("")

Full definition of scourge

Noun

1. (uncountable) A source of persistent trouble such as pestilence that causes pain and suffering or widespread destruction.
   Graffiti is the scourge of building owners everywhere.
2. A means to inflict such pain or destruction.
• ShakespeareWhat scourge for perjury
  Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?
• 2013-06-01, Towards the end of poverty, America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (…): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.
3. A whip, often of leather.
   He flogged him with a scourge.
• ChapmanUp to coach then goes
  The observed maid, takes both the scourge and reins.

Verb

1. To strike with a scourge, to flog.