Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Pest

Pest , noun

[Latin pestis: compare French peste.]

1.
A fatal epidemic disease; a pestilence; specif., the plague.
England's sufferings by that scourge, the pest. — Cowper
2.
Anything which resembles a pest; one who, or that which, is troublesome, noxious, mischievous, or destructive; a nuisance.
A pest and public enemy. — South