BLIGHT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does blight mean? 

• BLIGHT (noun)
  The noun BLIGHT has 2 senses:

1. a state or condition being blighted

2. any plant disease resulting in withering without rotting

  Familiarity information: BLIGHT used as a noun is rare.

• BLIGHT (verb)
  The verb BLIGHT has 1 sense:

1. cause to suffer a blight

  Familiarity information: BLIGHT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BLIGHT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A state or condition being blighted

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("blight" is a kind of...):

desolation; devastation (the state of being decayed or destroyed)

Derivation:

blight (cause to suffer a blight)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any plant disease resulting in withering without rotting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("blight" is a kind of...):

plant disease (a disease that affects plants)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blight"):

late blight (blight in which symptoms appear late in the growing season especially a disease of solanaceous plants caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans)

walnut blight (a disease of English walnut trees)

twig blight (a disease of the ends of twigs of woody plants)

tomato blight; tomato yellows (a disease of tomato plants)

thread blight (a disease of tropical woody plants (cacao or tea or citrus))

stripe blight (a disease of oats)

stem blight (a fungous blight attacking the stems of plants)

spur blight (a disease of raspberries)

spinach blight (a disease of spinach plants)

rim blight (a disease of tea plants)

potato blight; potato disease; potato mildew; potato mold; potato murrain (a blight of potatoes)

peach blight (a disease of trees bearing drupes)

leaf blight (any blight causing a browning and falling of the leaves of a plant)

alder blight (a disease of alders caused by the woolly alder aphid (a plant louse))

head blight (a blight of the heads of cereals)

halo blight (a blight affecting the leaves of oats and other grasses)

bean blight; halo blight; halo spot (a blight of bean plants)

collar blight (a disease affecting the trunks of pear and apple trees)

coffee blight (a blight affecting the coffee plant)

chestnut-bark disease; chestnut blight; chestnut canker (a disease of American chestnut trees)

cane blight (a disease affecting the canes of various bush fruits (e.g., raspberries or currants))

blister blight (a disease of Scotch pines)

blister blight (a disease of tea plants)

beet blight (a disease of beet plants)

apple blight; apple canker (a disease of apple trees)

Derivation:

blight (cause to suffer a blight)

• BLIGHT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they blight    ... he / she / it blights   
Past simple: blighted   
Past participle: blighted   
-ing form: blighting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to suffer a blight

Classified under:

Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Synonyms:

blight; plague

Context example:

Too much rain may blight the garden with mold

Hypernyms (to "blight" is one way to...):

afflict; smite (cause physical pain or suffering in)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

blight (any plant disease resulting in withering without rotting)

blight (a state or condition being blighted)

 Context examples 

Such a marriage would irretrievably blight my son's career, and ruin his prospects.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He felt that his blighted affections were quite dead now, and though he should never cease to be a faithful mourner, there was no occasion to wear his weeds ostentatiously.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

But it was Sarah’s fault, and may the curse of a broken man put a blight on her and set the blood rotting in her veins!

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Late blight can destroy entire fields and force some farmers to spray fungicides up to 15 times a year.

(Innovative Approach to Breeding Could Mean Higher Yields and Better Crops, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

It blighted his spirits for days, and when it had all gone from my mind it was brought back to me by his manner.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I wish to foster, not to blight—to earn gratitude, not to wring tears of blood—no, nor of brine: my harvest must be in smiles, in endearments, in sweet—That will do.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Take heed, I pray thee, for I do not wish to have a blight cast over me, nor a palsy of the limbs.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I cannot believe his prospects so blighted for ever.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

GM potatoes are also resistant to late blight disease which caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s and which continues to threaten potato crops worldwide.

(GM tech expands with more crops to more countries, SciDev.Net)

I thought of the promise of virtues which he had displayed on the opening of his existence and the subsequent blight of all kindly feeling by the loathing and scorn which his protectors had manifested towards him.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)