Blight

a diseased state of cultivated plants, especially cereals and gra es. The term has been very vaguely and variously used, having, in fact, been applied by agriculturists to almost every disease of plants in turn, however caused, especially when the plant dies before reaching maturity. It is now applied scientifically only to such diseases as are caused by parasite fungi or bacteria, as apple-blight, cherry-blight, potato-blight, etc.