INFESTATION

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A swarm of insects that attack plants

Example:

a plague of grasshoppers

Synonyms:

infestation; plague

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("infestation" is a kind of...):

cloud; swarm (a group of many things in the air or on the ground)

Derivation:

infest (invade in great numbers)

infest (occupy in large numbers or live on a host)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state of being invaded or overrun by parasites

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("infestation" is a kind of...):

fullness (the condition of being filled to capacity)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "infestation"):

trichuriasis (infestation by a roundworm; common in tropical areas with poor sanitation)

trombiculiasis (infestation with chiggers)

lousiness; pediculosis (infestation with lice (Pediculus humanus) resulting in severe itching)

opisthorchiasis (infestation with flukes obtained from eating raw fish; common in eastern Asia)

onchocerciasis; river blindness (infestation with slender threadlike roundworms (filaria) deposited under the skin by the bite of black fleas; when the eyes are involved it can result in blindness; common in Africa and tropical America)

myiasis (infestation of the body by the larvae of flies (usually through a wound or other opening) or any disease resulting from such infestation)

helminthiasis (infestation of the body with parasitic worms)

echinococcosis; hydatid disease; hydatidosis (infestation with larval echinococci (tapeworms))

coccidiosis ((veterinary medicine) infestation with coccidia)

ascariasis (infestation of the human intestine with Ascaris roundworms)

acariasis; acaridiasis; acariosis (infestation with itch mites)

myositis trichinosa; trichiniasis; trichinosis (infestation by trichina larvae that are transmitted by eating inadequately cooked meat (especially pork); larvae migrate from the intestinal tract to the muscles where they become encysted)

bilharzia; bilharziasis; schistosomiasis (an infestation with or a resulting infection caused by a parasite of the genus Schistosoma; common in the tropics and Far East; symptoms depend on the part of the body infected)

enterobiasis (an infestation with or a resulting infection caused by the pinworm Enterobius vermicularis; occurs especially in children)

dracunculiasis; Guinea worm; Guinea worm disease (a painful and debilitating infestation contracted by drinking stagnant water contaminated with Guinea worm larvae that can mature inside a human's abdomen until the worm emerges through a painful blister in the person's skin)

fasciolopsiasis (infestation with the large intestinal fluke Fasciolopsis buski; common in eastern Asia)

fascioliasis; fasciolosis (infestation with the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica; liver damage sometimes occurs; related to liver rot)