scourge

A person or thing that causes serious suffering or trouble for many people over time.

• War remains a terrible scourge.
• They worked to end the scourge of poverty.
• The cruel ruler was the scourge of the region.

How to use it: the scourge of something (The region still faces the scourge of hunger.); a scourge on someone/something (The disease became a scourge on the whole community.)

Similar words: plague, curse, menace, affliction

Opposites: blessing

Common phrases: scourge of poverty, a terrible scourge, fight the scourge

A leather whip used to punish people or force them to move.

• The guard carried a scourge.
• He struck the prisoner with a leather scourge.
• The museum displays several old scourges.

Similar words: whip, lash

Common phrases: leather scourge, with a scourge, wield a scourge

To cause people or places great suffering or trouble over a long time.

• War scourged the region.
• Disease had scourged the island for years.
• Repeated droughts scourge the farming communities.

Similar words: afflict, torment, plague

Common phrases: scourge a nation, scourge the land, scourge a population

To hit a person or animal with a whip, sometimes to make them move.

• The guards scourged him.
• The driver scourged the horses forward.
• Prisoners were scourged for refusing orders.

How to use it: scourge someone/something with something (The guard scourged the prisoner with a leather whip.)

Similar words: whip, flog, lash

Common phrases: scourge a prisoner, scourge someone forward, scourge a horse