Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Infest |
InfestVerb1. Invade in great numbers, as of pests. 2. Occupy in large numbers or live on a host; "cockroaches invaded my kitchen"; "Ants overran the picnic table"; "the Kudzu plant infests muchof the South" and is spreading to the North". 3. Live on or in a host, as of parasites. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "infest" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1120. (references) |
Synonyms: InfestSynonyms: invade (v), overrun (v). (additional references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Infest."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Pain | Displease, annoy, incommode, discompose, trouble, disquiet; faze, feaze, feeze (U.S.); disturb, cross, perplex, molest, tease, tire, irk, vex, mortify, wherret, worry, plague, bother, pester, bore, pother, harass, harry, badger, heckle, bait, beset, infest, persecute, importune. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Infest |
| English words defined with "infest": Bots ♦ chrysomelid ♦ Distoma ♦ Green fly ♦ Infesting ♦ leaf beetle, Louse mite, Lungworm ♦ Strongyloid. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "infest": Angiostrongylus ♦ bottom feeder ♦ Chaonian Bird, Commonwealth ♦ Haemonchus, Houseflies ♦ liver ♦ man ♦ Noxious weeds ♦ pest control worker ♦ Unix weenie ♦ vermin exterminator. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "infest": Infestuous. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Bad luck and misfortune will infest your pathetic soul for all eternity. (Rocko's Modern Life; writing credit: Geoff Atkinson) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Three-sixteenths-inch-long Propylea quatuordecimpunctata (14-spot) lady beetles look for aphids on a fava bean leaf. Scientists think the beetles might be helpful in controlling Russian wheat aphids that now infest 17 Great Plains and Western states. P.Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer.. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | And the night shall be filled with music, and the cares, that infest the day, shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, and as silently steal away. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | That these Yahoos engendered, and their brood in a short time grew so numerous as to overrun and infest the whole nation. |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | They are so vast and magnificent that the latter seem to be only vermin which infest them. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | MAN, n. An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earh and Canada. When the world was young and Man was new, And everything was pleasant, Distinctions Nature never drew 'Mongst kings and priest and peasant. We're not that way at present, Save here in this Republic, where We have that old regime, For all are kings, however bare Their backs, howe'er extreme Their hunger. And, indeed, each has a voice To accept the tyrant of his party's choice. A citizen who would not vote, And, therefore, was detested, Was one day with a tarry coat (With feathers backed and breasted) By patriots invested. "It is your duty," cried the crowd, "Your ballot true to cast For the man o' your choice." He humbly bowed, And explained his wicked past: "That's what I very gladly would have done, Dear patriots, but he has never run." Apperton Duke |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Infest" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 53.33% of the time. "Infest" is used about 15 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 53.33% | 8 | 124,375 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 46.67% | 7 | 133,076 |
| Total | 100.00% | 15 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
infest | 53 |
papa roach infest | 7 |
game infest | 5 |
papa roach infest lyrics | 3 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "infest"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | mbush (cement, charge, clog, close, cover in, cram, crowd, draw, fill, fill in, fill up, gorge, Grout, heap, imbue, impregnate, inject, inspire, line, load, make out, meet, pad, pervade, pour out, pump, stop up, Stow, stuff, suffuse, tap, write out). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | غزو (inroad, invasion), غزا (foray, invade, maraud, overrun), أزعج (ail, annoy, beset, bother, burn, discompose, disquiet, disrupt, distress, disturb, get in the way, get on smb.'s nerves, gig, gnaw, grate, hamper, harass, importune, incommode, inconvenience, intrude, irk, irritate, jolt, molest, nag, niggle, obsess, offend, pain, peck, peeve, perturb, pester, plague, possess, prickle, put out, rasp, rattle, ruffle, saddle, torment, trouble, upset, vex). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | гъмжа (crawl, pullulate, swarm, teem), въдя се по, опустошавам (become desolate, depredate, devastate, havoc, overrun, ravage, scourge, sweep, waste, wreak), нападам (assault, attack, do over, engage, fall on, fall upon, insult, lunge, mob, oppugn, pitch into, rabble, sail into, set about, set on, set upon, shape up, strike, strongarm, turn on, turn upon, walk into, zap), изобилствувам в, изобилствувам (abound, be infested, exuberate, teem). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 骚扰 (Ado, harassment, infested, Infesting), "亂 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | zamořit (contaminate, overrun, plague, taint). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | smitte (contaminate, infect, to contaminate, to infest), besudle (to contaminate, to infest). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | onveilig maken. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | infesti. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | فراوان بودن در, هجوم کردن در, ول نکردن . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | tunkeutua elimistöön (to infest), tartuttaa loinen (to infest), saastuttaa (contaminate, infect, pollute, taint, to contaminate, to infest), esiintyä elimistössä (to infest). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | infester (be infested, to infest), gêner (incommode, inconvenience). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | heimsuchen (afflict, attack, beset, descend on, invade, obsess, overtake, plague, scourge, to infest, to obsess, visit). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | μαστίζω (lash, plague, scourge, whip), ενοχλώ (act up, ail, annoy, badger, bedevil, bother, derange, discommode, disturb, fret, get someone's back up, grate on, harass, heckle, incommode, inconvenience, irk, irritate, jar on, pester, pother, trouble), λυμαίνομαι (overrun with, prey on). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | לשרוץ (abound, be infested, breed, crawl, pullulate, swarm, teem), לפשוט על. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | eláraszt (deluge, engulf, flood, flush, inundate, invade, overwhelm, rain, sluice, swamp, swarm, to deluge, to drug, to engulf, to flood, to flush, to glut, to infest, to inundate, to load, to overwhelm, to pelt, to perfuse, to sluice, to smother, to submerge). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | merajalela (rampant). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | infestare (afflict, distress, haunt, obsess, overrun, to infest). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | thooilley stiagh. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | plage (harass, harassment), hjemsøke. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | infestay infestar (haunt, pester, to infest). (various references) infesta, hãrţui (dragoon, harass, squabble, tease, worry, wrangle). (various references) кишеть (be infested, crawl, overrun, pullulate, teem). (various references) pustošiti (desolate, maraud, raven). (various references) infestar (plague, to infest). (various references) hemsöka (afflict, obsess, plague, scourge, visit). (various references) istila etmek (flood, invade, irrupt, spread over), zarar vermek (damage, do a disservice, do harm, encroach, flaw, harm, hurt, impair, injure, prejudice, scathe, scourge, shatter, spite), kaplamak (back, bestrew, canopy, carpet, case, clothe, coat, cover, encrust, envelop, face, fair, film, film over, fleece, hang, incrust, line, overgrow, overlap, overspread, overwhelm, plate, recap, revet, sheathe, sheet, shield, smother in, smother with, suffuse, take, thread, upholster, veneer, wreathe), doldurmak (charge, choke up, clog, complete, congest, cover in, crowd, fill, glut, infuse, line, load, point up, ram, replenish, store, stuff, throng, top up, write out), bürümek (clothe, cover up, suffuse, wrap). (various references) облягати (cling). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | infestare. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "infest": infestant, infestants, infestation, infestations, infested, infester, infesters, infesting, infests. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "infest": disinfest. (additional references) | |
Words containing "infest": disinfestant, disinfestants, disinfestation, disinfestations, disinfested, disinfesting, disinfests, noninfested, reinfestation, reinfestations. (additional references) | |
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"Infest" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: inef, ineft, inest, Inesti, infat, infe, infess, infeste, infit, infos, injest, inoffe, insest, intest, inuest, Isfets, nilfisk, unfast. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "infest" (pronounced i'nfe"st) |
| 5 | -n f e" s t | confessed. |
| 4 | -f e" s t | fessed, professed. |
| 3 | -e" s t | abreast, acquiesced, addressed, arrest, assessed, attest, behest, bequest, best, blessed, blest, breast, Celeste, chest, coalesced, compressed, congest, crest, depressed, detest, digest, digressed, dispossessed, distressed, divest, dressed, expressed, finessed, gest, guessed, guest, impressed, ingest, invest, jest, lest, messed, molest, nest, northwest, obsessed, oppressed, pest, possessed, pressed, Prest, progressed, quest, rearrest, reassessed, recessed, reinvest, repossessed, repressed, request, rest, retest, southwest, stressed, suggest, suppressed, test, transgressed, unaddressed, undressed, unimpressed, unrest, vest, West, wrest, zest. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: feints, finest. | |
| Words within the letters "e-f-i-n-s-t" | |
-1 letter: feint, feist, fines, inset, neifs, neist, nites, senti, stein, tines. | |
-2 letters: efts, fens, fets, fine, fins, fist, fits, neif, nest, nets, nite, nits, seif, sent, sift, sine, site, snit, tens, ties, tine, tins. | |
-3 letters: efs, eft, ens, fen, fet, fie, fin, fit, ifs, ins, its, net, nit, sei, sen, set, sin, sit, ten. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-f-i-n-s-t" | |
+1 letter: fainest, finites, fishnet, fitness, infects, infests, nifties, snifter, stiffen. | |
+2 letters: benefits, fainters, faintest, fanciest, fantasie, fawniest, feasting, feltings, feminist, ferniest, fifteens, figments, finniest, fishnets, fistnote, fitments, funkiest, funniest, infantes, infested, infester, inflates, inflects, manifest, niftiest, notifies, snifters, stiffens, unsifted. | |
+3 letters: antefixes, disinfect, disinfest, faineants, faintness, fantasied, fantasies, fantasise, fantasize, fascinate, fastening, fattiness, feminists, fenthions, ferritins, festering, festinate, fetations, fetidness, fettlings, filaments, finitudes, firestone, fistnotes, fitnesses, flatlines, flections, flinkites, flintiest, foresting, fostering, frenetics, frightens, fringiest, frontiers, fustiness, heftiness, infecters, infectors, infestant, infesters, infesting, infinites, inflaters, influents, intensify, interfuse, introfies, loftiness, manifesto, manifests, nitrifies, notifiers, reinfects, resifting, safetying, sniffiest, snuffiest, softening, stiffened, stiffener, stiffness, stonefish, swiftness, tiffanies, unfairest, unfitness, unshifted. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)49 6E 66 65 73 74 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).. -. ..-. . ... - |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001001 01101110 01100110 01100101 01110011 01110100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)I n f e s t |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0049 006E 0066 0065 0073 0074 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)438072718586 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Orthography 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
