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a pox on. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
a pox on, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
a pox on in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
a pox on you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
Originally an expression of abuse to wish that someone develop pocks, that is to say, contract pox. Though pox can range from smallpox to chickenpox to cowpox to syphilis, this expression almost always referred to the last one, the Great Pox.
Interjection
a pox on
- (archaic, offensive) To express curses upon (somebody), when irked or wroth, as though wishing someone "a pox".
1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!
- (humorous, said alternatively with of) To hell with (abstract or unalive things).
c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :A pox of that jest! and I beshrew all shrows.
c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :[…] A pox of drowning thyself!
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