Both Uses of
blight
in
The Scarlet Letter
- Hester gazed after him a little while, looking with a half fantastic curiosity to see whether the tender grass of early spring would not be blighted beneath him and show the wavering track of his footsteps, sere and brown, across its cheerful verdure.†
p. 162.3 *blighted = extensively damaged
- Such was his sense of power over this virgin soul, trusting him as she did, that the minister felt potent to blight all the field of innocence with but one wicked look, and develop all its opposite with but a word.†
p. 205.5
Definitions:
-
(1)
(blight) causing or consisting of extensive damage
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Blight can more specifically refer to numerous diseases that devastate plants.