HOW TO PRONOUNCE
scourge
/skɜɹd͡ʒ/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:41
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What does scourge mean?
noun
- (figuratively) A person or thing regarded as an agent of divine punishment.
- (figuratively) A source of persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble, such as a cruel ruler, disease, pestilence, or war.
verb
- To strike (a person, an animal, etc.) with a scourge (noun etymology 1 sense 1) or whip; to flog, to whip.
More meanings (5)
verb
- To drive, or force (a person, an animal, etc.) to move, with or as if with a scourge or whip.
- (figuratively) To punish (a person, an animal, etc.); to chastise.
- (figuratively) To cause (someone or something) persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble; to afflict, to torment.
- (figuratively) Of a crop or a farmer: to deplete the fertility of (land or soil).
noun
- (historical) A whip, often made of leather and having multiple tails; a lash.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/skɜɹd͡ʒ/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
No eye could see him, save that ever-wakeful one which had seen him in his closet, wielding the bloody scourge.
For your partaker Pole and you yourself, I’ll note you in my book of memory, To scourge you for this apprehension.
More book examples (3)
From its habit of despoiling the most valuable cultivated trees of their foliage, it is a great scourge to the Brazilians.
And I see three-fourths of the human race again despoiled, the labor of a few being a scourge to the labor of the rest.
Inquiry was made into the origin of the scourge, and by degrees various facts came out which excited public indignation in a high degree.