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Glite Dictionary
pesthole

pesthole

1 9.9
A crowded dirty place where disease spreads quickly
  • noun
  • Archaic
translation icon : foco de infección
  • Authorities warned that the overcrowded shelter had turned into a pesthole that could trigger a health crisis.

Examples

  • "It's a pesthole," he went on.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Instead, anarchists, pioneers, misfits, and other types of those people remain embedded in once-free states that have evolved into political senescence like the pestholes.

    Blog text (34)

  • If you think you can take the kids to a fever-ridden pesthole...

    My Favorite Wife (1940)

  • That's the toughest. meanest. filthiest. pesthole on the face of the Earth.

    The Muppet Movie (1979)

  • Of all the pestholes—

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The abandoned building became a pesthole for various infectious diseases due to lack of sanitation.

  • Ignoring the cleanliness of that pesthole could lead to an outbreak of disease among the residents.

Synonyms

pestilential area
vspesthole
  • Formal
9.5

An area that is dangerous to health because of disease

is specifically a site where diseases spread rapidly and cause epidemics

How Infectious

pesthole
  • Archaic
1 9.9
hotbed
  • Informal
21 6.5

Surface Forms

pesthole singular
pestholes plural

Morphology

pesthole = pest + hole (transparent) = pest + hole

The meaning is directly inferable as a place ('-hole') characterized by pests or disease ('pest'), so the compound is transparent to learners who know the components.

Etymology

Pesthole joins pest ('plague' or a harmful creature) and hole ('a dirty or small place'), so picture a cramped, dirty spot full of sickness. So, a pesthole is a place where disease can breed and spread quickly.