blight

blight (blīt)

noun

any atmospheric or soil condition, parasite, or insect that kills, withers, or checks the growth of plants
any of several plant diseases, as rust, mildew, or smut
anything that destroys, prevents growth, or causes devaluation slums are a blight on a city
a person or thing that withers someone's hopes or ambitions
the condition or result of being blighted

Etymology: ? akin to ME blichening, blight, rust (on grain) < bliknen, to lose color < ON blikja, turn pale: see bleach

transitive verb

intransitive verb

to suffer blight

blight′ed adjective

Object

ovum: Q. Does a blighted ovum mean there was no embryo?
downtown: The next years formerly blighted downtown is the largest.
neighborhood: In Scotland today crime and disorder and the menace of drugs blight far too many neighborhoods and communities.

Converse of object

generalize: The omission of a specific scheme to address generalized blight constitutes a major flaw in the proposed compensation package.

Adjective modifier

foliar: In the 2004 and 2005 trials differences between treatments at the final assessment of foliar blight were small.
bacterial: The transformed rice was resistant to sap sucking insects and to bacterial blight [ 17 ] .
urban: The Tower of London Comprehensive Development Area was an area of urban blight with much war damage.
late: Life cycle Potato late blight survives the winter in infected potato tubers.

Modifies a noun

fungicide: Late blight fungicides comprise more than 50 % of the fungicide used in The Netherlands.
forecasting: Blight forecasting: Because blight infection and spread is most rapid in warm humid weather conditions, farmers have developed a blight forecasting system.
pathogen: Sporangia Sporangia are the airborne spores of the blight pathogen and are responsible for the rapid spread of the disease in crops.
fungus: The Californian Governor has asked President Bush for $ 10 million to fight the blight fungus.
outbreak: This primary inoculum was and still remains the main source of late blight outbreaks.

Noun used with modifier

fusarium: In Europe alone, fusarium head blight destroys a fifth of wheat harvests.
tuber: Which blight fungicides can be tank-mixed with Harvest to help protect against tuber blight?
potato: Do not compost potato tops they may carry potato blight.
sheath: Nancy Castilla, from IRRI began the session with two presentations on the epidemiology of rice sheath blight.
leaf: A new leaf blight of French basil caused by Colletotrichum capsici in India.
seedling: It covers symptoms, disease cycle, mycotoxins in scabby grain, seedling blight phase of scab, and control methods.

Preposition: of

potato: The authors give the example of dealing with late blight of potatoes by the fungus Phytophthora infestans.

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