scourge

CEFRC1

/skɜːd͡ʒ/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A person or thing that causes great suffering.

  2. 02

    verb

    To cause widespread pain or damage.

Examples

  • Empowered, informed citizens are the scourge of any tyrant.

  • Algeria should eradicate the terrorism scourge.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A person or thing regarded as an agent of divine punishment.

  2. A source of persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble, such as a cruel ruler, disease, pestilence, or war.

  3. A whip, often made of leather and having multiple tails; a lash.

More examples

In context

  • Graffiti is the scourge of building owners everywhere.

  • He flogged him with a scourge.

  • Yf they breake myne ordinaunces, and kepe not my commaundementes. I vil vyſet their offences with the rodde, and their ſynnes with ſcourges.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The Black Death was a terrible blank that killed millions across Europe.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English scourge (“a lash, whip, scourge; affliction, calamity; person who causes affliction or calamity; shoot of a vine”), and then either: * from Anglo-Norman scorge, escorge, escurge, or Old French scurge, escourge, escorge, escorgiee, escurge (modern French escourgée (“(archaic) whip made of leather strips”)), either: ** from Vulgar Latin *excoriāta (“strip of hide; a scourge”), from Late Latin excoriāre, the present active infinitive of excoriō (“to strip the skin from, to skin”), from Latin ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + corium (“skin; hide, leather”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off, sever; to divide, separate”)); or ** from Latin ex- (intens...