Definition

Noun: A place or location that serves as a source or breeding ground for infectious diseases; a focus of epidemic infection.

Usage

The word "pesthole" is used to describe a specific, often localized, area that is a source of contagion and public health danger. It implies unsanitary, crowded, or otherwise unhealthy conditions that foster the spread of disease.

Examples

• The overcrowded and unsanitary tenement was declared a pesthole by health inspectors.
• In the 19th century, parts of the city were notorious pestholes for cholera and typhoid.
• The stagnant water near the settlement became a pesthole for malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

Advanced Usage

• The term can be used metaphorically to describe a place that is a source of corruption, vice, or other undesirable influences, though this is an extended figurative sense.
  • The corrupt official turned the department into a pesthole of bribery and fraud.

Variants and Related Words

• Pestilential (adj): Relating to or causing pestilence (disease); also used figuratively to mean harmful or destructive.
  • The pestilential swamp was drained to improve public health.
• Pesthouse (n): A historical term for a hospital or building for isolating people with contagious diseases.

Synonyms

• Hotbed (of disease)
• Breeding ground (for disease)
• Septic focus
• Plague spot (archaic/literary)

Antonyms

• Sanatorium
• Health resort
• Sterile environment

Related Phrases and Idioms

• A nest of contagion: A very similar phrase meaning a concentrated source of infectious disease.
  • The refugee camp, lacking clean water, risked becoming a nest of contagion.

Noun

1. a breeding ground for epidemic disease