(n.) Any great misfortune or cause of misery; -- generally applied to events or disasters which produce extensive evil, either to communities or individuals.
(n.) A state or time of distress or misfortune; misery.
Example Sentences:
(1) But if nothing changes, nothing will change, and these calamities will be with us once more.
(2) 18) Dallas Cowboys Last season: 8-8 Needs: Offensive line, safety, defensive tackle, running back Pick: Kenny Vaccaro, safety, Texas Tony Romo often carries the can for the Cowboys' offensive calamities, but the truth is that not many quarterbacks look great when they are running for their lives.
(3) They did not look like Stoke, exactly, they kept the ball on the floor a bit more than their opponents and did not go backwards quite so much, but in the first half at least there were two sides short of attacking ideas and genuine penetration and for either to score a goal it seemed likely a dead-ball routine or a defensive calamity would have to be involved.
(4) QPR appear to be on the verge of calamity at any point in defence.
(5) SJ Closs Edinburgh He is the Daffy Duck of politics – confident and self-satisfied, leading to calamity; then he pops up again, unabashed • As a fellow economist I fully endorse Larry Elliott’s demolition of Tory party assertions that all is well for the UK’s growing economy, and that Britain is paying its way ( The Tories’ ticking economic timebomb , 20 April).
(6) This system has now been refined to be used prospectively during the management stage of a calamity.
(7) Those who backed the wars in Iraq and Libya feel tainted by the bloodshed in the calamities that followed.
(8) US and Canadian oil policies, especially the tar sands schemes in Alberta, would increase the chances of global calamities, the imposters told their audience - but reassured them that the industry could keep "fuel flowing" by transforming the billions of people who died into oil.
(9) But they should be manageable and worth taking for the wider economic gains, notably averting what might have been an economic calamity.
(10) The community's children have been especially vulnerable to these calamities.
(11) The 2007 campaign was marked by dirty tricks charges against the Huhne camp by the man he (allegedly) dubbed "Calamity Clegg".
(12) I stand to appeal on behalf of the government and the people of Vanuatu that the global community give a lending hand in responding to these very current calamities that have struck us,” he said.
(13) The Crystal World is surely Ballard's most gorgeous calamity: apocalypse not as abolition but as transfiguration.
(14) By calculating the medical severity index, which is the product of the casualty load and the severity of the incident, and comparing this figure with the available total capacity of the medical services, which is the medical rescue capacity, the medical transport capacity and the hospital treatment capacity, the dispatcher at the control center can fairly quickly and precisely identify if a calamity is to be regarded as a disaster or not and if the region can cope with the situation.
(15) In Scotland, meanwhile, Labour has suffered a devastating calamity.
(16) But if the political will existed, calamity could be avoided with a fairly modest increase in the budget allocation .
(17) The disease that has brought these calamities to the pretty hills of Jinotega, in Nicaragua's central highlands, is new to most of the farmers I meet.
(18) Beckett, whose influence on Walsh is palpable, and Pinter would recognise that idea that beneath the surface of everyday life lays a gaping black hole: indeed Pinter from his youth frequently quoted a phrase of Cardinal Newman that creation is a vast "aboriginal calamity".
(19) Air brakes that would have prevented the disaster failed because they were powered by an engine that was shut down by firefighters as they dealt with a fire shortly before the calamity occurred, the head of the railway that operated the train said on Monday.
(20) The droughts will be far worse than the one in California – or those seen in ancient times, such as the calamity that led to the decline of the Anasazi civilizations in the 13 th century, the researchers said.
Scourge
Definition:
(n.) A lash; a strap or cord; especially, a lash used to inflict pain or punishment; an instrument of punishment or discipline; a whip.
(n.) Hence, a means of inflicting punishment, vengeance, or suffering; an infliction of affliction; a punishment.
(n.) To whip severely; to lash.
(n.) To punish with severity; to chastise; to afflict, as for sins or faults, and with the purpose of correction.
(n.) To harass or afflict severely.
Example Sentences:
(1) King Salman of Saudi Arabia urged the redoubling of efforts to “eradicate this dangerous scourge and rid the world of its evils”.
(2) He added: "Those responsible for the murders of Fiona, Nicola, Mark and David Short are established criminals who are a scourge on our society.
(3) Afterwards, the scourge of corrupt politicians wagged his own clean finger in front of the cameras.
(4) But the British prime minister oozed schadenfreude with the result, received strong support from the Germans, the Dutch and the Scandinavians and looked pleased with the stalemate, portraying himself as the scourge of bloated Brussels, the guardian of the British and the European taxpayer.
(5) Francis, however, said the treatment hospital was a "shrine to human suffering" that emphasised the need to confront the scourge of drugs through education, justice and stronger social values.
(6) The former scourge of the establishment, then, became its friend.
(7) Lynch confirmation may 'be resolved' in 48 to 72 hours, says GOP senator Read more But the biggest Congressional headache of the year – a single cabinet nomination effectively hijacking the legislative calendar – has culminated in “a very sad irony”: Lynch has been one of the country’s premier guardians of victims of sex trafficking, and a tireless scourge of sex traffickers, a review of her record and conversations with current and former colleagues reveal.
(8) Late that night, Eliot Spitzer, New York governor and the scourge of Wall Street banks, called his closest aides.
(9) Shark finning, to serve Chinese diners, has also been a scourge.
(10) They include family formation and education and good jobs, and we’re going to bring them to the American people and finally end the scourge of poverty in this great land.” Although the conservative prescription is more familiar than the egalitarian diagnosis, such a full-throated emphasis on poverty would have marked a distinct change of tone for Republicans .
(11) In truth, zero-hours contracts (ZHC) aren’t the scourge of everyone’s existence.
(12) Despite stepped-up efforts to curb the scourge, the number of animals killed is around 100 higher than at the same point in 2013, a year which saw a record 1,004 deaths .
(13) Possibly one of the greatest contributions we can make to our patients' welfare is to share the knowledge that the risk of dying of breast cancer is considerably smaller than the risk of developing breast cancer; that the risk of early death from breast cancer rarely exceeds 10% in even the highest risk groups; and that the life styles most likely to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and other scourges of womankind are also those most likely to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer.
(14) Even age-old scourges such as slavery continue to exist.
(15) A Home Office spokesperson said the department was already taking action to address key issues raised by the inspection report, saying: “This government is leading the world in confronting the scourge of modern slavery including through the groundbreaking Modern Slavery Act.
(16) In 2015, Barack Obama condemned “the scourge of antisemitism”.
(17) The marriage of two scourges, one old (mycobacterial disease) and one new (HIV), has presented an enormous challenge to the medical and public health communities, and has stirred renewed interest in mechanisms for immune control of mycobacterial infection.
(18) Like his colleague Tory MP Nicholas Soames, who in 2009 called the "scourge" of ragwort a national "shame", Benyon struck back, saying his critics were being "unnecessarily aggressive", and that he wasn't advocating ethnic cleansing of ragwort but that he wanted to deal with "a severe infestation of a poisonous plant".
(19) If anything, the economic crisis had made the scourge of unemployment even worse – on estates such as La Chêne Pointu, where more than half the population is under 25, joblessness tops 40%.
(20) We are going to be helping to put together a plan for them, so that they can start retaking territory that ISIL had taken over.” Iraq, which is forming a new government, and Muslim states with Sunni majorities, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey, would have to “step up” to confront the scourge of Sunni extremism, he said.