infest

infest, overrun, beset are comparable when they refer to disagreeable or noxious things and mean to make trouble because of their presence in swarms.

Although infest carries only by suggestion the idea of annoyance or repugnance, since idiom does not require reference to the person so affected, the term is always derogatory

{

wild pigs invade the airfields: Crocodiles infest the rivers— Michener

}

{

to poison vermin that infest his plants- Cowper

}

{

the idle rich who at present infest the older universities— Russell

}

{

police agents and provocateurs who infested the revolutionary movement— Rolo

}

Overrun is often interchangeable with infest, especially in the passive, but because it usually retains the implications of its basic sense it is the precise word when the idea of running or spreading is to be conveyed

{

the cellar is overrun with mice

}

{

the garden is overrun with weeds

}

{

heavily wooded and overrun with flowers— Amer. Guide Series: Mich.

}

{

conformity of belief has . . . overrun whole populations like a plague— MacLeish

}

{

he found the East already overrun with refugee conductors— Green Peyton

}

Beset has usually the meaning to trouble through frequency and persistence, and often connotes assailing or attacking

{

he was beset by enemies on every side

}

{

she hurried at his words, beset with fears— Keats

}

{

the road is beset with dragons and evil magicians— Costain

}

{

subject to none of the pressures that beset American and English papers— Mott

}

Analogous words: *teem, swarm, abound: harass, harry, pester, plague, *worry, annoy

Antonyms: disinfest

Contrasted words: *exterminate, extirpate, eradicate, wipe: *abolish, annihilate, extinguish, abate