plagued

1. 1
   kept troublingverb

   Simple past and past participle of plague.

   A string of injuries has plagued the striker since the start of the season.

   Reporters plagued the family with phone calls for weeks after the verdict.

   Note

   Because plague ends in a silent e, only -d is added, and one spelling serves as both past and participle. Two prepositions follow it with different jobs: with names the means of harassment (plagued the family with phone calls), while in the passive by names the cause (the farm was plagued by drought). That passive shades easily into the adjective.

2. 2
   troubledadjective

   Beset by constant affliction or relentless attack from someone or something.

   Few neighborhoods were as plagued by break-ins as ours that winter.

   The plagued garrison held out against nightly raids for another month.

   Similartroubled, afflicted

   Note

   Being gradable is what marks the adjective: it takes more, most and as … as, as in the most plagued district or as plagued by break-ins as ours. After a verb it usually keeps a by phrase naming the trouble; before a noun it can stand on its own, as in the plagued garrison.

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