Word.ws English Dictionary

blight

/blaɪt/

blight noun: a diseased condition suffered by a plant; specifically, a complete and rapid chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as floral organs, leaves, branches, or twigs, especially one caused by a fungus; a mildew, a rust, a smut.

blight: a diseased condition suffered by a plant; specifically, a complete and rapid chlorosis, browning,...
Image: Rasbak, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

blight (countable and uncountable, plural blights)

  1. A diseased condition suffered by a plant; specifically, a complete and rapid chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as floral organs, leaves, branches, or twigs, especially one caused by a fungus; a mildew, a rust, a smut.
    • Proceed, inhuman Parent in thy Scorn; / Root up my Trees, vvith Blites deſtroy my Corn; / My Vineyards Ruin, and my Sheepfolds burn.1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 136...
    • As ſudden blights corrupt the ripen'd grain, / And of its verdure ſpoil the mournful plain; / So hapleſs love on blooming features preys, / So hapleſs love deſtroys our peaceful days.1720, John Gay, “[Miscellanies.] Panthea. An Elegy.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, volume II, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], and Bernard Lintot, […], →OCLC, page 388, lines 337–340
  2. The cause of such a condition, often unseen but believed to be airborne; specifically, a bacterium, a virus, or (especially) a fungus; also, an aphid which attacks fruit trees.
  3. (broadly) A state of cloudy, humid weather.
    • And the youth stood by thy side and whispered to thee; and from his lips there came a reeking smoke, and in that smoke as in a blight the wings withered up.1848, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter IV, in Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings; […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, book VIII (Fate), page 261
  4. (broadly, dated) A diseased condition of the face or skin; specifically, bleeding under the conjunctiva of the eye, a form of skin rash, or a palsy of the face due to cold.
  5. (figuratively) Something that impedes development or growth, or spoils any other aspect of life.
    • But a blight had come over my existence, and I only visited these people for the sake of the information they might give me on the subject in which my interest was so terribly profound.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter II, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding...
    • He saw her image in the blight and blackness all around him, not irradiating but deepening the gloom.1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “Mr. Dombey Goes Upon a Journey”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 201
    Synonyms:
    bane
  6. (figuratively, specifically) A rundown and unsightly condition of an urban area; also, such an area.

Verb

blight (third-person singular simple present blights, present participle blighting, simple past and past participle blighted)

  1. (transitive) To affect the fertility or growth of (a plant) with a blight (noun sense 1.1), especially one caused by a fungus; to blast, to mildew, to smut.
    • But if it happens, as ſometimes it does, that this Vapour bears up along vvith it any noxious mineral Steams, it then blasts Vegetables, eſpecially thoſe vvhich are more young and tender: blights Corn and Fruits: and is ſometimes injurious even to Men vvho chance to be then abroad in the Fields.1695, John Woodward, “Part IV. Of the Origin and Formation of Metalls and Minerals.”, in An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth: And Terrestrial Bodies, Especially Minerals: […], London: […]...
    • In your eye there is death, / There is frost on your breath / Which would blight the plants.1830 June, Alfred Tennyson, “The Poet’s Mind”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 51
    Synonyms:
    blighten
  2. (broadly, dated, transitive) To affect (a body part) with a disease.
    • [B]lighted be the tongue / That names thy name without the honour due!1811, Walter Scott, The Vision of Don Roderick; a Poem, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for John Ballantyne and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, stanza LI, page...
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To impede the development or growth of (an aspect of life); to damage, to ruin, to spoil.
    • Those obscene tattoos are going to blight your job prospects.
    • [T]o be too far in loue vvith vvorldly felicity, that ſo blighteth goodneſſe and pietie, vvhat is it but vvith the Thurij to make an idoll of the vvinde, and to be in loue vvith blaſting.1623, Iames Rowlandson [i.e., James Rowlandson], “The Second Sermon”, in Gods Blessing in Blasting, and His Mercy in Mildew. Two Sermons Sutable to These Times of Death, London: […] Iohn Haviland for...
  4. (intransitive) Of a plant: to suffer blight (noun sense 1.1).
    • This vine never blights.

blight meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

blight in Tamil

கருநோய், பிளைட், வெளிறனோய், கருகல், கருகல் நோய்

blight in Urdu

بےاثر کرنا, دھماکا کرنا

blight in Bengali

উদ্ভিদের মড়ক, ধ্বংসাত্মক প্রভাব, অভিশাপ

blight in Telugu

type of diseased condition of a plant — see also mildew, rust, smut
తెగులు tegulu
More languagesFewer languages
blight in Malayalam
പൂപ്പൽരോഗം, അവഗണന മൂലം മുരടിച്ച അവസ്ഥ
blight in Punjabi
ਸਾੜਨਾ sāṛnā

Examples of blight in a sentence

  • A blight in 1855–56 set back the industry, many plantations being ruined and then given over to sugar cane.1922, William H[arrison] Ukers, “Cultivation of the Coffee Plant”, in All About Coffee, New York, N.Y.: The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal...
  • She moved about the country like a ghost, gathering herbs in dark loanings, lingering in kirkyairds, and casting a blight on innocent bairns.1902 January, John Buchan, “The Outgoing of the Tide”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales, Edinburgh; London: William...
  • Oh, Love! like the blast of the desert thou blightest / The fairest of flowers with thy venomous breath.1840 August, “The Talisman”, in The Citizen; a Monthly Journal of Politics, Literature, and Art, volume II, number X, Dublin: Machen and...
  • The lady Blast, you must understand, has such a particular malignity in her whisper, that it blights like an easterly wind, and withers every reputation that it breathes upon.1712 August 24 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “WEDNESDAY, August 14, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 457; republished in Alexander...

All 26 example sentences with blight

Synonyms of blight

24 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of blight

Forms of blight

Noun
pluralblights
Verb
third-person singular presentblights
present participleblighting
past participleblighted
pastblighted
second-person singular present (archaic)blightest
second-person singular past (archaic)blightedst
third-person singular present (archaic)blighteth

Past tense of blight: blighted

Plural of blight: blights

Origin of blight

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 condition of the skin, possibly from Middle English *bleighte, *bleȝte, from Old English blǣcþa (“leprosy”) (related to blǣċe (“an itching skin-disease”) and blǣċo (“leprosy; paleness”)), from Proto-West Germanic *blaik, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz (“pale; white”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”). If so, the word is a doublet of bleak. The verb is derived from the noun.

Words formed from blight

Phrases with blight

1 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with blight

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about blight

What does blight mean?
Blight means a diseased condition suffered by a plant; specifically, a complete and rapid chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as floral organs, leaves, branches, or twigs, especially one caused by a fungus; a mildew, a rust, a smut.
What is blight in Tamil?
Blight in Tamil is கருநோய், பிளைட், வெளிறனோய். See Blight meaning in Tamil.
How do you use blight in a sentence?
A blight in 1855–56 set back the industry, many plantations being ruined and then given over to sugar cane.
What part of speech is blight?
Blight can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce blight?
Blight is pronounced /blaɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of blight?
The plural of blight is blights.

Words near blight in the dictionary

  1. blige
  2. Bligh
  3. Bligh Island
  4. Bligh Park
  5. Blighs
  6. blight
  7. blightbird
  8. blightbirds
  9. blighted
  10. blightedly
  11. blighten

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blight (page history and authors); blight (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); blight (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); blight (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); blight (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਸਾੜਨਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “blight.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blight. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.