Plague
PLAGUE, noun plag. [Latin plaga, a stroke; Gr. See Lick and Lay. The primary sense is a stroke or striking. So afflict is from the root of flog, and probably of the same family as plague ]
1. Any thing troublesome or vexatious; but in this sense, applied to the vexations we suffer from men, and not to the unavoidable evils inflicted on us by Divine Providence. The application of the word to the latter, would now be irreverent and reproachful.
2. A pestilential disease; an acute, malignant and contagious disease that often prevails in Egypt, Syria and Turkey, and has at times infected the large cities of Europe with frightful mortality.
3. A state of misery. Psalms 38:1.
4. Any great natural evil or calamity; as the ten plagues of Egypt.
PLAGUE, verb transitive plag.
1. To infest with disease, calamity or natural evil of any kind.
Thus were they plagued
And worn with famine.
2. To vex; to tease; to harass; to trouble; to embarrass; a very general and indefinite signification.
If her nature be so,
That she will plague the man that loves her most--