All 4 Uses

pestilence
in
Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson
(Auto-generated)

The healer woman put a comfrey salve on it to draw out the pestilence.†
p. 151.6 *
—and there was this one lad, ooh, he'd had his hand blown clean off and a grubby bandage wrapped round his wrist, and I looked at that and I said to myself, That arm's coming off next, young man, and maybe your leg for good measure' on account of a noxious pestilence that filled the air.†
p. 170.6
Not until this pestilence has left my lungs.†
p. 259.9
When the chamber was clean, Madam told me to open the windows again and let them stand open all afternoon to make sure there was no lingering pestilence in the air.†
p. 266.7

Definitions:

(1) (pestilence)
widespread disease (usually severe); or any severely harmful or evil influence that is hard to get rid of
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)