Empest (verb)
Em-pest
To infect with plague, pestilence, etc.
Early 17th century; earliest use found in William Fowler (d. 1612), writer and courtier. From French empester to corrupt (a person) morally, to infect (a person) with a contagious disease, e.g. plague or pestilence from em- + peste.
Example sentences
“And he did empest upon the town a virus so serious it wiped out the entire population.”
