white plague

1. 1.

   involving the lungs with progressive wasting of the body

   Synonymspulmonary tuberculosisconsumptionphthisiswasting disease

   Broadertuberculosis
2. 2.

   an addiction to a drug (especially a narcotic drug)

   Synonymsdrug addiction

   Broaderaddiction

   Narroweralcoholismcocaine addictionheroin addictioncaffein addictionnicotine addiction

   narcotic

Questions about white plague

What does white plague mean?

white plague means "involving the lungs with progressive wasting of the body". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for white plague?

Close synonyms include pulmonary tuberculosis, consumption, phthisis, wasting disease, drug addiction. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is white plague a common word?

white plague is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.