Pes*tif"er*ous (?), a. [L. pestiferus, pestifer; pestis pest + ferre to bear: cf. F. pestifere.]
1.
Pest-bearing; pestilential; noxious to health; malignant; infectious; contagious; as, pestiferous bodies.
"Poor,
pestiferous creatures begging alms."
Evelyn. "Unwholesome and
pestiferous occupations."
Burke.
2.
Noxious to peace, to morals, or to society; vicious; hurtful; destructive; as, a pestiferous demagogue.
Pestiferous reports of men very nobly held.
Shak.
© Webster 1913.