01 a. Noxious to health; hurtful; mischievous; unwholesome; insalubrious; destructive; as, noisome effluvia.
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1.
Noxious to health; hurtful; mischievous; unwholesome; insalubrious; destructive; as, noisome effluvia.
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2.
Offensive to the smell or other senses; disgusting; fetid.
Syn.
Noxious; unwholesome; insalubrious; mischievous; destructive.
-- Noisome, Noxious. These words have to a great extent been interchanged; but there is a tendency to make a distinction between them, applying noxious to things that inflict evil directly; as, a noxious plant, noxious practices, etc., and noisome to things that operate with a remoter influence; as, noisome vapors, a noisome pestilence, etc. Noisome has the additional sense of disqusting. A garden may be free from noxious weeds or animals; but, if recently covered with manure, it may be filled with a noisome smell.