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infest

verb
/ɪnˈfɛst/

Etymology

From Middle English infesten, from Old French infester (“to infest”), from Latin īnfestō (“assail, molest”, verb), from īnfestus (“hostile”), from in + *-festus (“probably seized, handled”).

  1. derived from īnfestō
  2. derived from infester
  3. inherited from infesten

Definitions

  1. To inhabit a place in unpleasantly large numbers

    To inhabit a place in unpleasantly large numbers; to plague, harass.

    • Insects are infesting my basement!
    • I come now to speak of the Pyrates infesting the West-Indies, where they are more numerous than in any other Parts of the World, on several Reasons […]

  2. To invade a host plant or animal.

  3. Mischievous

    Mischievous; hurtful; harassing.

    • […] The swarme of scaled snakes Did make an yrksome noyce to heare, as she her tresses shakes. About her shoulders some did craule, some trayling downe her brest, Did hisse, and spit out poison greene, and spirt with tongues infest.
    • He stayed not t’advize, which way were best His foe t’assayle, or how himselfe to gard, But with fierce fury and with force infest Upon him ran […]
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. Hostility.

The neighborhood

Derived

disinfest, infestive, infestment, preinfest, reinfest

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at infest. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01infest02plague03seen04saw05metal06moulded07mould08mouldy09lousy10infested

A definitional loop anchored at infest. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at infest

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA