pest

plural pests

1. archaicA pestilence, i.e. a deadly epidemic, a deadly plague.

   1 more example

   From the perspective of traditional Chinese culture, pests and famines are reflections of the current administration’s lack of moral values and deviation from divine will. The head of the administration (the emperor in the past) would then issue an edict to sincerely repent and correct his wrongdoings.

   2020 March 24, Qing Zhu, Zhang Ming, “Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, China Faces Plague of Locusts”, in Minghui

2. Any destructive insect that attacks crops or livestock; an agricultural pest.
3. An annoying person, a nuisance.
4. An animal regarded as a nuisance, destructive, or a parasite, vermin.
5. An invasive weed.

alternative obsolete Pesth

1. historicalOne of the originally three separate cities that were united in 1873 to become the Hungarian capital, Budapest.
2. The corresponding part of the current-day city of Budapest, on the eastern side of the Danube.

   On a drizzly mid-January evening, I stood at the arches of the wall of Buda Castle, overlooking the Danube and the 19th-century Chain Bridge that links Buda with Pest.

   2014 January 30, Seth Kugel, “Wintertime Bargains in Budapest”, in The New York Times

3. A county in central Hungary, surrounding Budapest.