| 释义 |
blight
I. \ˈblīt, usu -d.+V\ noun
(-s)
Etymology: origin unknown
1.
a. : any disease, symptom of disease, or injury of plants characterized by or resulting in withering, cessation of growth, and a more or less general death of parts (as leaves, flowers, and stems) without rotting and caused by fungi or bacteria, viruses, unfavorable climatic conditions, or insect attack — often used with a qualifying word that describes the disorder
< black blights of various plants >
or that names the plant or part affected
b. : any organism causing blight; especially : an insect (as the woolly apple aphid) that causes such a condition
2. : something that frustrates one's plans or withers one's hopes
< suffering the pervading blight of poverty >
3.
a. : something that impairs or destroys
< the censorship … has brought under its blight Ireland's greatest poets, dramatists, and scholars — Paul Blanshard >
b. : a condition or influence that lowers the value of real estate
< industrial expansion may create urban blight >
often : the state resulting from such a condition
< congested slums and decaying areas of blight which are the outstanding disgrace of American city life — Pencil Points >
4. chiefly Britain : aphid; especially : woolly apple aphid
5. Australia : an inflammation of the eye in which the eyelids discharge a thick mucous substance that often seals them up for days and minute granular pustules develop inside the lid — called also sandy blight
II. verb
(-ed/-ing/-s)
transitive verb
1. : to affect (as a plant) with blight : blast
< last night's hard frost blighted the late flush of growth >
2. : to cause to deteriorate : ruin, frustrate
< some human beings ruin and blight themselves by old-fashioned sex suppression while others ruin and blight themselves by new-fashioned sex excess — J.C.Powys >
intransitive verb
: to suffer from or become affected with blight : become blasted
< our potatoes blighted > |