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
Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 21 Aug. 2025
Free agency and cap management is an especially large blight on the franchise, where seemingly every UFA deal the team signs looks immediately poor from the jump.
—Dom Luszczyszyn, New York Times, 20 Aug. 2025
Vitas Carosella, Forbes.com, 5 Aug. 2025
Gun violence continues to blight Glasgow’s neighborhood, most recently in a deadly gun battle last month that left three people dead and 10 wounded.
—Kathleen Toner, CNN Money, 1 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for blight
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Noun
According to the warrant affidavit, the Old Saybrook Health Department contacted the homeowners to address health code violations and the Building Department planned on drafting a blight report.
—Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 21 Aug. 2025
Free agency and cap management is an especially large blight on the franchise, where seemingly every UFA deal the team signs looks immediately poor from the jump.
—Dom Luszczyszyn, New York Times, 20 Aug. 2025
Verb
The road to recovery has been a long one, blighted by set backs and criticism.
—Vitas Carosella, Forbes.com, 5 Aug. 2025
Gun violence continues to blight Glasgow’s neighborhood, most recently in a deadly gun battle last month that left three people dead and 10 wounded.
—Kathleen Toner, CNN Money, 1 Aug. 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 2 Sep. 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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