0 any type of deadly epidemic disease, especially bubonic plague -- (far)sott, pest; svartedauden
the spread of the pestilence.
Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.
The enormity and constant observance of death during a time of pestilence indicates some explanation of late the medieval hedonism that occurs.
She is propitiated especially at times of pestilence, when chickenpox and measles strike.
Pollution and pestilence have broken out, contagion made more terrible by their sheer numbers overwhelms them.
He asserted that famine, war and pestilence were positive ways of checking the growth in population, sweeping away excess peoples, and then maintaining a rough equilibrium between people and necessities.
Had the countryside been left largely untouched by the pestilence, the rapid repopulation of affected cities would have been relatively unproblematic, and the long-term consequences of the disease accordingly slight.
Although the island is "a great cemetery" lying "under the hot sun of the tropics", it is not the cesspool of pestilence and poison that it should be.
The alternative is possible war, famine and pestilence.
