scourge

Speaking at a crisis meeting, France's Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu warned of "a tragic scourge of drownings", saying 40 mostly young people had drowned since June 18.

From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026

This isn’t the first time Kavanaugh has written about the scourge of racism in jury selection.

From Slate ● May 28, 2026

One cites her newfound sobriety as evidence that people can change — a nod to Steyer’s self-proclaimed metamorphosis from hedge fund titan to scourge of big corporations.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026

The New York Police Department is making progress on tackling the scourge of retail theft that has hit businesses across the city—and the nation—in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026

The pain was her scourge, Catelyn felt, lest she forget.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

Yet these scourges aren’t unique to Mexico, the author points out—they exist around the world, even in “the countries that pride themselves on being the democracies par excellence.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025

A better social safety net to end this and other scourges of poverty is in order.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 23, 2024

Though we might assume Elmo is unencumbered by society’s scourges in the same way we are, it’s worth reminding ourselves that he’s partly assuming some of that baggage for us.

From Salon ● Feb. 3, 2024

Malaria kills mostly babies and infants, and has been one of the biggest scourges on humanity.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2023

Searching for precedents, the foresters could remember other scourges of spider mites, though less dramatic than this one.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

He then revealed his "scourged back" as proof.

From BBC ● Dec. 8, 2022

Pope Francis, in 2013, said the shroud is an “icon of a man scourged and crucified.”

From Washington Times ● Feb. 24, 2022

The subject, from St. John’s Gospel, shows Pontius Pilate presenting the scourged and mocked Christ to the crowd.

From New York Times ● Apr. 8, 2021

Diane Offutt, eyes squeezed shut, nodded amen, as did the girlfriend, while Kovler portrayed their man as industrious and responsible, not someone fitting the profile of a shooter in a metropolis scourged by hair-trigger mayhem.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 10, 2019

Their bulging eyes seemed to rebuke her stares, but what were the attentions of one girl, disturbing their rest, compared to how the world had scourged them since the day they were brought into it?

From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead

“The wildfires scourging Los Angeles these last few weeks have been a devastating humanitarian and natural disaster,” Sharpton said in a prepared statement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 1, 2025

In 1869, the British critic Matthew Arnold observed that Protestant Americans had internalized Hebraism’s scourging demands for “conduct and obedience” and “strictness of conscience”:

From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2024

That has left innovation, with the exception of a few one-person shows, largely to small theaters in rural areas where the pandemic has been less scourging.

From New York Times ● Oct. 14, 2020

In awarding the Nobel to Mr. Fo, the Swedish Academy noted that he “emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden.”

From Washington Post ● Oct. 13, 2016

He held the scourging tail in one claw, while gripped in the other was his war standard, topped by the ferret skull with the addition of the tattered tapestry square depicting Martin the Warrior.

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques