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
Paul Blanshard4
: a deteriorated condition
urban blight
blighted; blighting; blights
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
Patricia Guthrie
botany
: to suffer from or become affected with blight
The potatoes blighted.
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.
Recent Examples on the Web
Joe Dwinell, Boston Herald, 29 May 2025
Their quest: to finally solve the mystery of the Nameless and their connection to the Force, and to stop the blight before its damage becomes irreversible.
—Dalton Ross, EW.com, 29 May 2025
Zak Garner-Purkis, Forbes.com, 30 June 2025
The brutalist federal buildings that have blighted Washington, D.C., for decades deserve the same fate as Carthage after the Third Punic War, and the nation’s capital is finally beginning to move on from these concrete monstrosities.
—Rich Lowry, National Review, 29 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for blight
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Noun
The health report did not directly address the law enforcement focus on fentanyl trafficking or the Mass and Cass blight in Boston.
—Joe Dwinell, Boston Herald, 29 May 2025
Their quest: to finally solve the mystery of the Nameless and their connection to the Force, and to stop the blight before its damage becomes irreversible.
—Dalton Ross, EW.com, 29 May 2025
Verb
Injuries blighted his past campaign and saw a massive drop-off in performances.
—Zak Garner-Purkis, Forbes.com, 30 June 2025
The brutalist federal buildings that have blighted Washington, D.C., for decades deserve the same fate as Carthage after the Third Punic War, and the nation’s capital is finally beginning to move on from these concrete monstrosities.
—Rich Lowry, National Review, 29 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for blight
Cite this Entry
“Blight.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blight. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
blight
1 of 2 noun1
a
: a disease of plants marked by withering and death of parts (as leaves)
b
: an organism that causes blight
2
a
: something that harms or destroys
b
: a damaged or worsened condition
urban blight
blight
2 of 2 verb1
: to affect with blight
2
: to damage or worsen the quality or condition of
slums and blighted areas
3
: to suffer from or become affected with blight
Medical Definition
blight
noun
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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