From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpestpest /pest/ ●○○ noun [countable] 1 HBIa small animal or insect that destroys crops or food supplies → vermin a chemical used in pest control2 informalANNOY an annoying person, especially a child
Examples from the Corpus
pest• The heron gobbled up land crabs which, without the herons, had become a pest on the islands.• Stop being such a pest, Timothy.• A different type of biologically engineered pest control is claimed to have been effected through a free-living soil bacteria.• a new strategy for pest control• He thought it was a phone pest until police collared the culprit with a phone tap.• Farmers employ mixed cropping systems and plant local cultivars with some resistance to pests.Origin pest (1500-1600) French peste “plague”, from Latin pestis 