avoid like the plague

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

• General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /əˈvɔɪd laɪk ðə ˈpleɪɡ/
  Play
• Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  Play

From the deadliness of the plague and the need to avoid it. Commonly attributed to similar phrases in Latin used by the priest and theologian Saint Jerome (c. 347–420) in his letters, for example: : His igitur quasi quibusdam pestibus exterminatis veniamus ad eos,[...] Avoiding these [the Remnuoth, a class of monks in Egypt] then as though they were the plague, [...] : [N]egotiatorem clericum et ex inope divitem et ex ignobili gloriosum quasi quandem pestem fuge Avoid, as you would the plague, a clergyman who is also a man of business, one who has risen from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to a high position

17 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Czech: vyhýbat se něčemu jako moru — to evade or shun
• Danish: sky som pesten — to evade or shun
• Finnish: välttää kuin ruttoa — to evade or shun
• French: fuir comme la peste — to evade or shun
• Galician: evitar como a praga — to evade or shun
• German: wie die Pest meiden — to evade or shun
• German: wie der Teufel das Weihwasser meiden — to evade or shun
• Greek: αποφεύγω σαν την πανούκλα (apofévgo san tin panoúkla) — to evade or shun
• Italian: evitare come la peste — to evade or shun
• Norwegian: sky som pesten — to evade or shun
• Polish: bać się jak diabeł święconej wody — to evade or shun
• Portuguese: evitar como uma praga — to evade or shun
• Romanian: fugi ca dracul de tămâie — to evade or shun
• Russian: обходи́ть за версту́ (obxodítʹ za verstú) — to evade or shun
• Spanish: evitar como la peste — to evade or shun
• Swedish: sky som pesten — to evade or shun
• Ukrainian: утікати, як чорт від ладану (utikaty, jak čort vid ladanu) — to evade or shun