blight
英 [blaɪt] 美 [blaɪt]
n.枯萎病；导致破坏的因素v.(使）枯萎；摧毁
◉词源
Blight（枯萎病）约16世纪进入英语，可能源自古英语 blǣc（苍白）或与 blight（打击、损坏）相关。演变过程：从植物“枯萎、病害”直接扩展为比喻“任何造成破坏或衰败的事物”，常用于城市衰落、社会问题或经济困境。词根 blight-（可能与“苍白、打击”相关）；后缀无（名词/动词形式）
◉外刊例句
① The New York Times, 2015:
The city’s industrial blight has left large areas abandoned.
这座城市的工业衰败已导致大片区域被遗弃。
② The Guardian, 2023:
Urban blight and gentrification often go hand in hand.
城市衰败与绅士化往往相伴而生。
◉ Usage Examples
(1) Blight is a disease incident to plants.
(2) There is a blight on all his efforts.
(3) The accident cast a blight on our happiness.
(4) Such a blight was fallen over my literary career.
(5) Too much rain may blight the garden with mold.
(6) Her life was blighted by ill health.
(7) Let us heal the world and blight its pain.
(8) I wish to foster, not to blight; to earn gratitude, not to wring tears of blood.
(1) 植物容易患枯萎病。
(2) 他的一切努力都遭到挫折。
(3) 那场意外事故使我们的幸福生活蒙上了一层阴影。
(4) 我的文学生涯受到极大挫折。
(5) 雨水太多会令花园因长真菌而枯萎。
(6) 她的一生被疾病所摧残。
(7) 让我们拯救世界，让伤痛枯萎。
(8) 我希望培育，不希望损坏--希望赢得感激，不希望挤出血泪。
◉ Usage Notes
A blight is a disease that hurts plants and makes their leaves wither. It can also affect neighborhoods. Urban blight refers to a part of the city where things are falling apart.
Blight rhymes with bright, but it’s the opposite of sunshine; instead of making plants grow, it cripples them. The Irish Potato Famine was an example of a blight. In 1845, more than a third of the potato crops were ruined. The plants turned black and their leaves dried up and people who relied on potatoes for most of their meals also withered and experienced extreme hardship and hunger. You might want to think of it this way: a blight makes people — or plants — fight for their lives.
◉柯林斯词典
1. [N-VAR 可变名词]破坏因素；祸根；阴影 You can refer to something as a blight when it causes great difficulties, and damages or spoils other things. [usu with supp]
① This discriminatory policy has really been a blight on America...
这项歧视性政策确实成了美国的一大祸根。
② Manchester still suffers from urban blight and unacceptable poverty.
曼彻斯特仍然受到城区脏乱和严重贫困问题的困扰。
2. [VERB 动词]破坏（生活）；使（希望）破灭；摧毁；损毁 If something blights your life or your hopes, it damages and spoils them. If something blights an area, it spoils it and makes it unattractive. [V n] [V-ed]
① An embarrassing blunder nearly blighted his career before it got off the ground.
一个令人难堪的疏忽几乎毁掉了他还没有起步的事业。
② ...thousands of families whose lives were blighted by unemployment.
成千上万因为失业而难以维持生计的家庭
③ ...a strategy to redevelop blighted inner-city areas.
改建破败不堪的旧城区的策略
3. [N-UNCOUNT 不可数名词]（植物的）枯萎病 Blight is a disease which makes plants dry up and die. [also N in pl]