1. Any unwanted and destructive insect or other animal that attacks food or crops or livestock etc.
   "he sprayed the garden to get rid of pests"; "many pests have developed resistance to the common pesticides"
    
2. Someone given to teasing (as by mocking or stirring curiosity)
   "The telemarketer became a real pest, calling multiple times a day";
   - blighter [Brit, informal], cuss [informal], pesterer, gadfly, vexer, annoyer
    
3. Any epidemic disease with a high death rate
   "The pest swept through the population, leaving few survivors";
   - plague, pestilence
    
4. [archaic] A serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea that has bitten an infected animal
   "The Black Death was caused by the pest";
   - plague, pestilence, pestis [rare]

Derived forms: pests

Type of: animal, animate being, epidemic disease, persecutor, tormenter, tormentor

Encyclopedia: Pest