(v. t.) To call upon divine or supernatural power to send injury upon; to imprecate evil upon; to execrate.
(v. t.) To bring great evil upon; to be the cause of serious harm or unhappiness to; to furnish with that which will be a cause of deep trouble; to afflict or injure grievously; to harass or torment.
(v. i.) To utter imprecations or curses; to affirm or deny with imprecations; to swear.
(v. t.) An invocation of, or prayer for, harm or injury; malediction.
(v. t.) Evil pronounced or invoked upon another, solemnly, or in passion; subjection to, or sentence of, divine condemnation.
(v. t.) The cause of great harm, evil, or misfortune; that which brings evil or severe affliction; torment.
Example Sentences:
(1) But it was also a portrait of an England charged with secrets - and, as Michael Billington put it, the work of an accomplished playwright who understood the English curse of 'emotional evasion.'
(2) A new, terrible curse that comes on top of the bleaching, the battering, the poisoning and the pollution.
(3) She comes from the "cursed" political dynasty in Pakistan : her grandfather, the former president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed in 1979, three years before Fatima was born; her father, the radical politician Murtaza Bhutto, was shot dead by police in 1996; and her aunt, the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a bombing in 2007.
(4) It has somehow managed to escape the curse of Murdoch, who partly owns it.
(5) But it accused South Park of having mocked the prophet, and cited Islamic scholars who ruled that "whoever curses the messenger of Allah must be killed".
(6) Now they await the results of the American League Championship Series to see whether this year's World Series will be a rematch of 2004, when the Cardinals were swept by the curse-reversing Boston Red Sox, or 2006, when the Cardinals defeated the Detroit Tigers and became one of the worst teams to win the World Series in MLB history .
(7) Several survivors and family members of the victims who were flown to the US testified this week , and one cursed Bales for attacking villagers as some slept and others screamed for mercy.
(8) The bakers can freeze each layer as it goes on, tensely waiting by the ice box, cursing under their breath.
(9) Still alive, he was then surrounded by people who cursed and spat at him, kicked him in the head and tried to hit him with a chair.
(10) How they got here You'll be forgiven if you thought they were still cursed, if you had been following recent baseball history.
(11) Not a Lynyrd Skynyrd "doom will plague you at every turn" sort of curse, it must be said; more a sequence of mildly irritating events.
(12) In 1 infant diagnosed with Ondine's curse, examination showed diffuse neuronal loss and gliosis in the medullary tegmentum.
(13) Since then, the cursing and sobbing have been plentiful.
(14) Maguwu said: "To me it's very clear the diamonds have been a curse to this country.
(15) As Taylor cursed, McClaren embarked on a tactical rejig.
(16) The curse of playing Ari Gold is that Jeremy Piven may have to spend the rest of his life trying to convince the world he is not a rage-fuelled blustering asshole.
(17) They managed to catch two people, aged no more than 30, and were beating them up badly, swearing at them all the time and cursing the Shia clerics, saying: "Where is al-Khomeini now?
(18) It would swirl around that child's head in the manner of a bad fairy from a storybook bringing along a cursed gift to a christening.
(19) Infantile delivery also frequently serves to take the curse off self-publicity; sleight of hand for those who find "my programme is on BBC2 tonight" too presumptuous and exposing, and prefer to cower behind the low-status imbecility of "I done rote a fingy for da tellybox!"
(20) This discovered gothic quality within everyday life found one of its finest expressions in the American work of French-born director Jacques Tourneur , especially the brilliant Cat People (1943), Curse of the Cat People (1944) and Night of the Demon (1957).
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.