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Rancorous vs Pestiferous - What's the difference?

rancorous | pestiferous |

As adjectives the difference between rancorous and pestiferous

is that rancorous is full of rancor; bitter; unforgiving while pestiferous is containing organisms that cause contagious diseases.

rancorous

English

Alternative forms

* rancourous

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Full of rancor; bitter; unforgiving.
  • rancorous speech

    Synonyms

    * malicious * resentful * venomous

    pestiferous

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • containing organisms that cause contagious diseases
  • * 1589 : Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations
  • because he hath vouchsafed to preserue our nation from such fountains, from serpents and venemous wormes, & from al other pestiferous & contagious creatures.
  • * 1792 : Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
  • In these solemn moments man discovers the germ of those vices, which like the Java tree shed a pestiferous vapour around--death is in the shade!
  • * 1853 : Charles Dickens, Bleak House
  • and bears the body of our dear brother here departed to a hemmed-in churchyard, pestiferous and obscene, whence malignant diseases are communicated to the bodies of our dear brothers and sisters who have not departed...
  • annoying, vexatious
  • * 1592 : William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 1
  • No, prelate; such is thy audacious wickedness, / Thy lewd, pestiferous , and dissentious pranks, / As very infants prattle of thy pride.
  • * 1896 : Mark Twain, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
  • and if any could have hanged his hindering and pestiferous council and set him free, he would have answered Joan's prayer and set her in the field.
  • * 1938 : Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster, "Superman" in Action Comics #7, page 2:
  • Lois rescues Clark from the pestiferous curly...

    Synonyms

    * pestilent

    References