Meanings
- archaicoffensiveTo express curses upon (somebody), when irked or wroth, as though wishing someone "a pox".
A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!
1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]Synonyms: woe betide, fie upon, to hell with
- humorousTo hell with (abstract or unalive things).
[…] A pox of drowning thyself!
c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]1 more example
A pox of that jest! and I beshrew all shrows.
c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]
Synonyms & antonyms
interjectionTo express curses upon (somebody), when irked or wroth, as though wishing someone "a pox".
Origin
Originally an expression of abuse to wish that someone develop pocks, that is to say, contract pox. Though pox can range from smallpox to chickenpox to cowpox to syphilis, this expression almost always referred to the last one, the Great Pox.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
a pox on. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/a%20pox%20on
“a pox on.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/a%20pox%20on. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “a pox on,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/a%20pox%20on.
Source: a pox on on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.