blighting

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: […]...

   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.

   Synonyms:

   ball up, bumble, botch, bugger up, bungle, contaminate, corrupt, crab, deprave, disrupt

4. (intransitive) Of a plant: to suffer blight (noun sense 1.1).
   • This vine never blights.

See all 10 meanings of blight