avoid like the plague

US, UK/əˈvɔɪd laɪk ðə ˈpleɪɡ/

verb

To evade or shun, if at all possible.

“Cliché should be avoided like the plague.”

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Meanings

verbavoid like the plague (third-person singular simple present avoids like the plague, present participle avoiding like the plague, simple past and past participle avoided like the plague)

present singular third person avoids like the plague · participle present avoiding like the plague · participle past avoided like the plague · past avoided like the plague

  1. simileTo evade or shun, if at all possible.

    Cliché should be avoided like the plague.

    5 more examples

    I’m one of those people who avoids confrontations like the plague.

    It is the country of countries where the people pass their lives in enjoying the dolce far niente. Hard work is a thing they hate, and carefully avoid like the plague.

    1872 April, “A Ramble in Peru”, in I[saac] W[illiam] Wiley, editor, The Ladies’ Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature and Religion, volume XXXII (New Series, volume IX), number 16, Cincinnati, Oh.: Hitchcock and Walden; New York, N.Y.: Carlton and Lanahan, →OCLC, page 263, column 2

    Without posing as experts, we believe that the first essential to the efficient teacher of the young is a sense of direction, and that the danger to avoid like the plague is the patronage of the child. In both these respects, musicians in charge of orchestral concerts for children in this country fail miserably.

    1925, Musical News and Herald, London: The Musical News Syndicate, →OCLC, page 389, column 1

    Evening dress was barred, because you were all "good pals" and didn't want to look like the "boring people" who were to be avoided like the plague and only asked to the big evenings, which were given as seldom as possible and then only if it would amuse the painter or make the musician better known.

    1992, Marcel Proust; C[harles] K[enneth] Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin and D[ennis] J[oseph] Enright, transl., “Part Two: Swann in Love”, in In Search of Lost Time: Volume 1: Swann’s Way, New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, →ISBN, page 267

    A lot of things I'd like to talk about and I'm avoiding like the plague.

    1996, Elizabeth Smither, “The Journal of the Thirty-third Year: September 1975 – August 1976”, in The Journal Box, Auckland: Auckland University Press, →ISBN, page 4

Origin

From the deadliness of the plague and the need to avoid it. Commonly attributed to similar phrases in Latin used by the priest and theologian Saint Jerome (c. 347–420) in his letters, for example: : His igitur quasi quibusdam pestibus exterminatis veniamus ad eos,[…] Avoiding these [the Remnuoth, a class of monks in Egypt] then as though they were the plague, […] : [N]egotiatorem clericum et ex inope divitem et ex ignobili gloriosum quasi quandem pestem fuge Avoid, as you would the plague, a clergyman who is also a man of business, one who has risen from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to a high position

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Czech vyhýbat se něčemu jako moru
  • vyhýbat se něčemu jako moruto evade or shun
Danish sky som pesten
  • sky som pestento evade or shun
Finnish välttää kuin ruttoa
  • välttää kuin ruttoato evade or shun
French fuir comme la peste
  • fuir comme la pesteto evade or shun
German wie die Pest meiden, wie der Teufel das Weihwasser meiden
  • wie die Pest meidento evade or shun
  • wie der Teufel das Weihwasser meidento evade or shun
Greek αποφεύγω σαν την πανούκλα
  • αποφεύγω σαν την πανούκλα (apofévgo san tin panoúkla)to evade or shun
Italian evitare come la peste
  • evitare come la pesteto evade or shun
Norwegian sky som pesten
  • sky som pestento evade or shun
Polish bać się jak diabeł święconej wody
  • bać się jak diabeł święconej wodyto evade or shun
Portuguese evitar como uma praga
  • evitar como uma pragato evade or shun
Romanian fugi ca dracul de tămâie
  • fugi ca dracul de tămâieto evade or shun
Russian обходи́ть за версту́
  • обходи́ть за версту́ (obxodítʹ za verstú)to evade or shun
Spanish evitar como la peste
  • evitar como la pesteto evade or shun
Swedish sky som pesten
  • sky som pestento evade or shun
Ukrainian утікати, як чорт від ладану
  • утікати, як чорт від ладану (utikaty, jak čort vid ladanu)to evade or shun
Cite this entry
APA

avoid like the plague. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/avoid%20like%20the%20plague

MLA

“avoid like the plague.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/avoid%20like%20the%20plague. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “avoid like the plague,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/avoid%20like%20the%20plague.

Source: avoid like the plague on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.