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Great unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind; wretchedness; distress; woe. Chaucer. Destruction and misery are in their ways. Rom. iii. 16.

The elementary and indestructible units which were conceived of as endowed with the power to produce all the changes they undergo, and thus determine all physical and spiritual phenomena.

Destructive to life; causing or occasioning death; terminating life; exposing to or deserving death; deadly; as, a mortal wound; a mortal sin.

Death; destruction. Shak.

Bringing or producing death; deadly; destructive; as, a mortiferous herb. Gov. of Tongue.

A disease which is very destructive to silkworms, and which sometimes extends to other insects. It is attended by the development of a fungus (provisionally called Botrytis bassiana). Also, the fungus itself.

ies of cotton (Gossypium religiosum) that is naturally of a brownish yellow color quite indestructible and permanent.

A member of a secret association (esp. in Russia), which is devoted to the destruction of the present political, religious, and social institutions.

Biting; pinching; painful; destructive; as, a nipping frost; a nipping wind.

Noxious to health; hurtful; mischievous; unwholesome; insalubrious; destructive; as, noisome effluvia. "Noisome pestilence." Ps. xci. 3.

Hurtful; harmful; baneful; pernicious; injurious; destructive; unwholesome; insalubrious; as, noxious air, food, or climate; pernicious; corrupting to morals; as, noxious practices or examples. Too frequent an appearance in places of public resort is noxious to spiritual promotions. Swift.

a finger or toe, attended with ulceration at the base of the nail, and terminating in the destruction of the nail.

of a clearwing moth (Ægeria, or Sannina, exitiosa) of the family Ægeriidæ, which is very destructive to peach trees by boring in the wood, usually near the ground; also, the moth itself. See Illust. under Borer.

Entire loss; utter destruction; ruin; esp., the utter loss of the soul, or of final happiness in a future state; future misery or eternal death. The mere perdition of the Turkish fleet. Shak. If we reject the truth, we seal our own perdition. J. M. Mason.

Danger; risk; hazard; jeopardy; exposure of person or property to injury, loss, or destruction. In perils of waters, in perils of robbers. 2 Cor. xi. 26. Adventure hard With peril great achieved. Milton. At, or On, one's peril, with risk or danger to one; at the hazard of. "On thy soul's peril." Shak.…

Liable to perish; subject to decay, destruction, or death; as, perishable goods; our perishable bodies.

The quality or state of being perishable; liability to decay or destruction. Locke.

Destruction; perdition. [Obs.] hudibras.

Having the quality of injuring or killing; destructive; very mischievous; baleful; malicious; wicked. Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar. Shak. Pernicious to his health. Prescott.

which resembles a pest; one who, or that which, is troublesome, noxious, mischievous, or destructive; a nuisance. "A pest and public enemy." South.