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A house or hospital for persons who are infected with any pestilential disease.

Pest-bearing; pestilential; noxious to health; malignant; infectious; contagious; as, pestiferous bodies. "Poor, pestiferous creatures begging alms." Evelyn. "Unwholesome and pestiferous occupations." Burke.

Fig.: That which is pestilent, noxious, or pernicious to the moral character of great numbers. I'll pour this pestilence into his ear. Shak. Pestilence weed (Bot.), the butterbur coltsfoot (Petasites vulgaris), so called because formerly considered a remedy for the plague. Dr. Prior.

Abounding, or infecting, with plagues; pestilential; as, plagueful exhalations.

morbid, noxious, or deadly effect upon it; as, morphine is a deadly poison; the poison of pestilential diseases.

Hence, to be predominant; to prevail. "Pestilent diseases which commonly reign in summer." Bacon.

vulgare) having showy purplish blue flowers. It is sometimes cultivated, but has become a pestilent weed in fields from New York to Virginia. Also called blue weed. -- Viper's grass (Bot.), a perennial composite herb (Scorzonera Hispanica) with narrow, entire leaves, and solitary heads of yellow flowers. The long, whi…