From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Pestiferous \Pes*tif"er*ous\, adjective [L. pestiferus, pestifer; pestis pest + ferre to bear: cf. F. pestif['e]re.]
1. Pest-bearing; pestilential; noxious to health; malignant; infectious; contagious; as, pestiferous bodies. ''Poor, pestiferous creatures begging alms.'' --Evelyn. ''Unwholesome and pestiferous occupations.'' --Burke.
2. Noxious to peace, to morals, or to society; vicious; hurtful; destructive; as, a pestiferous demagogue.
Pestiferous reports of men very nobly held. --Shak.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: contaminated with infecting organisms; "dirty wounds"; "obliged to go into infected rooms"- Jane Austen [syn: {contaminated}, {dirty}, {infected}]
2: likely to spread and cause an epidemic disease; "a pestilential malignancy in the air"- Jonathan Swift; "plaguey fevers" [syn: {pestilent}, {pestilential}, {plaguey}]
3: tending to corrupt or pervert [syn: {corruptive}, {perversive}]
4: causing irritation or annoyance; "tapping an annoying rhythm on his glass with his fork"; "aircraft noise is particularly bothersome near the airport"; "found it galling to have to ask permission"; "an irritating delay"; "nettlesome paperwork"; "a pesky mosquito"; "swarms of pestering gnats"; "a plaguey newfangled safety catch"; "a teasing and persistent thought annoyed him"; "a vexatious child"; "it is vexing to have to admit you are wrong" [syn: {annoying}, {bothersome}, {galling}, {irritating}, {nettlesome}, {pesky}, {pestering}, {plaguy}, {plaguey}, {teasing}, {vexatious}, {vexing}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
87 Moby Thesaurus words for "pestiferous": aggravating, annoying, bad, bad for, baneful, bothering, bothersome, catching, communicable, contagious, contaminated, deadly, destructive, disturbing, endemic, envenomed, epidemial, epidemic, epiphytotic, epizootic, exasperating, foul, galling, harassing, harmful, importunate, importune, infectious, infective, injurious, inoculable, insalubrious, insanitary, irking, irksome, irritating, malign, malignant, mephitic, miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic, morbific, noisome, noxious, pandemic, pathogenic, peccant, pesky, pestering, pestilent, pestilential, plaguesome, plaguey, plaguing, poisonous, polluted, provoking, septic, sporadic, spreading, tainted, taking, teasing, tiresome, tormenting, toxic, toxicant, toxiferous, troublesome, troubling, unhealthful, unhealthy, unhygienic, unsanitary, unwholesome, venenate, veneniferous, venenous, venomous, vexatious, vexing, virulent, wearisome, worrisome, worrying, zymotic
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