\ ˈblīt 
\
\Definition of blight
(Entry 1 of 2)
1 botany
a : a disease or injury of plants marked by the formation of lesions, withering, and death of parts (such as leaves and tubers)
potato blight
b : an organism (such as an insect or a fungus) that causes blight
2 : something that frustrates plans or hopes
the blight of poverty an abandoned factory that was a blight on the neighborhood
3 : something that impairs or destroys
… censorship … has brought under its blight Ireland's greatest poets, dramatists, and scholars.— Paul Blanshard
4 : a deteriorated condition
urban blight
blight
verbblighted; blighting; blights
Definition of blight (Entry 2 of 2)
1 botany : to affect (a plant) with a disease or injury marked by the formation of lesions, withering, and death of parts (such as leaves and tubers) : to affect with blight (see blight entry 1 sense 1)
The apple trees were blighted by fungus.
2 : to impair the quality or effect of
the condition that has blighted his son's life— Patricia Guthrie
botany : to suffer from or become affected with blight
The potatoes blighted.
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Synonyms for blight
Synonyms: Noun
- blemish,
- blotch,
- defect,
- deformity,
- disfigurement,
- excrescence,
- excrescency,
- fault,
- flaw,
- imperfection,
- mar,
- mark,
- pockmark,
- scar
Examples of blight in a Sentence
Noun
the city's spreading urban blight
the expanding urban sprawl is a blight on the countryside Verb
Builders blighted the land with malls and parking lots.
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Recent Examples on the Web: Noun The new hall fails to solve many of New York’s myriad transportation problems — congestion on the tracks, the need for a new tunnel under the Hudson River, the blight of the existing Penn Station, to name a few.
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New York Times, "Let There Be Light, and Art, in the Moynihan Train Hall," 30 Dec. 2020 Less blight leads to more economic interest in the area, Tidy said.
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Suzanne Pfefferle Tafur, NOLA.com, "Project that turns utility boxes into works of art celebrates 10 years and 250 boxes painted," 24 Dec. 2020 Early urban reformers, such as Jacob Riis and Jane Addams in the first decades of the twentieth century, were quick to link urban blight and social deviance.
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Max Holleran, The New Republic, "The Future of Staying Home," 3 Dec. 2020 Often bothered by the blight in Detroit’s neighborhoods, Gibbs has worked for more than two decades to make a difference.
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Kyla L. Wright, Detroit Free Press, "Awards recognize 7 Detroit women who are leaders in their neighborhoods," 5 Oct. 2020 Homelessness has caused tension in many neighborhoods because of the blight associated with encampments and concerns about crime and mental health issues in parks and residential communities.
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Jessica Boehm, The Arizona Republic, "'Stepping up to do more': Phoenix council approves broad plan to address homelessness, affordable housing," 27 May 2020 But the species is now considered functionally extinct because a deadly blight fungus was introduced around the turn of the 20th century.
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Theresa Machemer, Smithsonian Magazine, "Invasive Pest Threatens Future of North American Ash Trees," 25 Sep. 2020 Ray Halbritter, the representative of the Oneida Indian Nation, told me that Washington’s former team name has long been a unique blight on the American sports landscape.
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Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic, "When Your Hometown Team Gets a New Identity," 26 Nov. 2020 Sutphin says the block is currently a blight on the area.
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Trevor Fraser, orlandosentinel.com, "Proposed Winter Park hotel on Lake Killarney draws ire and praise from the neighborhood," 12 Nov. 2020 Recent Examples on the Web: Verb Its players are encouraged to speak out and in recent years, many have found their voice to address the cruel inequality and racial prejudice that continues to blight their communities.
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Don Riddell, CNN, "NBA vs. Trump and the US Presidential election," 5 Sep. 2020 Flint residents had already seen auto plants close, unemployment skyrocket and gun violence and blight scar their streets.
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New York Times, "‘Double Challenge Mode’ in Flint, Where Virus Follows Water Crisis," 18 Aug. 2020 The 65-year-old is scrambling to salvage his legacy, blighted by allegations of understating his compensation and raiding corporate resources for personal gain at Nissan.
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Matthew Campbell, Bloomberg.com, "Ghosn Takes His Case to a Global Court of Public Opinion," 16 May 2020 And as coal slowly exits the energy equation, its legacy could blight the landscape, and public health, for generations.
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Michael J. Coren, Quartz, "Coal’s collapse could lead to a landscape of abandoned mines," 23 Apr. 2020 On the Gulf The Deepwater Horizon blowout blighted the Gulf as a whole, not just coastal waters.
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al, "10 years after Deepwater Horizon disaster: Along Alabama’s Gulf Coast, questions, and work, go on," 19 Apr. 2020 Right now, the full-time politician who's mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey, is fighting a move by reformers saying the blighted, crime-ridden resort town should switch to a city-manager government.
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Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press, "Shortage of city-manager candidates has Detroit suburb delaying search," 3 Feb. 2020 The one catalpa tree is either blighted or a late bloomer.
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Lee Durkee, Harper's Magazine, "Ride or Die," 30 Mar. 2020 Numerous commercial and residential buildings on Silver Lane that sat boarded and blighted have been removed.
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Jesse Leavenworth, courant.com, "East Hartford mayor running for fifth term cites challenges, successes," 23 Sep. 2019
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'blight.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for blight
blight
nounEnglish Language Learners Definition of blight
(Entry 1 of 2)
: a disease that makes plants dry up and die
: something that causes harm or damage like a disease
: a damaged condition
blight
verbEnglish Language Learners Definition of blight (Entry 2 of 2)
: to damage (plants) with a disease
: to damage (a thing or place)
See the full definition for blight in the English Language Learners Dictionary
blight
noun\ ˈblīt \
\Kids Definition of blight
(Entry 1 of 2)
: a disease that makes parts of plants dry up and die
blight
verbblighted; blighting
Kids Definition of blight (Entry 2 of 2)
: to injure or destroy by or as if by a blight
Huge signs blighted the landscape.
blight
noun\ ˈblīt \
\Medical Definition of blight
Australian
: an inflammation of the eye in which the eyelids discharge a thick mucous substance that often seals them up for days and minute granular pustules develop inside the lid
— called also sandy blight
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Time Traveler for blight
The first known use of blight was in 1578
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