plaguing

plaguing is the present participle and gerund of plague.

Meaning of plague

plague (third-person singular simple present plagues, present participle plaguing, simple past and past participle plagued)

(transitive) To harass, pester or annoy someone persistently or incessantly.
- Dame Gill did grin,
  As she went in,
  And Jill was plagu'd by Jack,
  Will Goat came by,
  And made Jack cry,
  And knock'd him on his back.1810, Jack and Jill, and old Dame Gill, York: J. Kendrew, page 7
Synonyms:

badger, harry, hound, bait, bedevil, beleaguer, persecute, dog, bullyrag, besiege
(transitive) To afflict with a disease or other calamity.
- Natural catastrophes plagued the colonists till they abandoned the pestilent marshland.
Synonyms:

scourge, torment

plaguing (plural plaguings)

annoyance; harassment
- Every man, Mexican and child on the ranch was the devoted courtier of Miss Jean, for she was a lovable woman; and in spite of her isolated life and the constant plaguings of her brother on being a spinster, she fitted neatly into our pastoral life.2017, Andy Adams, The Log of the Cowboy and Other Trail Tales

plural	plaguings

What does plaguing mean?: Plaguing means annoyance; harassment.
What is plaguing the present participle and gerund of?: Plaguing is the present participle and gerund of plague.
What part of speech is plaguing?: Plaguing is a noun.
What is the plural of plaguing?: The plural of plaguing is plaguings.

Adapted from Wiktionary: plaguing (page history and authors); plague (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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