1 [usuallysing.] ~ (of sb/sth) (written) a person or thing that causes trouble or suffering:
the scourge of war / disease / poverty * Pirates are once again the scourge of the China Sea. * Inflation was the scourge of the 1970s.
2 a WHIP used to punish people in the past
verb [VN]
1 [usuallypassive] (literary) to cause trouble or suffering to sb:
He lay awake, scourged by his conscience.
2 (old use) to hit sb with a scourge
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