How to Use infest in a Sentence

infest

verb
  • Two lion siblings have set a new record for long-distance swimming, paddling across a treacherous stretch of river infested with crocodiles and hippos, on an epic adventure to find female mates.
    New Atlas, 10 July 2024
  • This tick is known to infest deer and a wide range of other hosts.
    Lindsay Kimble, PEOPLE.com, 24 Apr. 2018
  • All the adult dogs were dirty, flea-infested, and had long, untrimmed claws.
    Thomas MacMillan, WSJ, 19 Oct. 2017
  • Small white fluffy material on the stem and trunk of the trees are one of the signs that the tree is infested.
    Joe Heim, Washington Post, 21 Apr. 2023
  • For the past three years, my home has been infested with biting gnats.
    Ronda Kaysen, New York Times, 27 May 2023
  • The bed might be infested with bedbugs, but the TV remote will be germ-free.
    Rick Barrett, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 27 June 2017
  • What should gardeners do about the aphids and bugs that infest milkweed stems and blooms?
    Calvin Finch, San Antonio Express-News, 17 Sep. 2021
  • The twist is that the map is also infested with cube monsters that are trying to kill you.
    Andrew Webster, The Verge, 6 Nov. 2018
  • One was placed in a basement unit that had no heat and was infested with rats and spiders.
    Maria Perez, jsonline.com, 4 Dec. 2019
  • In the worst-case scenario, the pros may discover that your home is infested with a bat colony.
    Health.com, 8 Sep. 2017
  • The internet, meanwhile, has likely served to swell the ranks of the infested.
    National Geographic, 22 June 2018
  • There are many species of round worms (nematodes) that can infest fish.
    Joe Genzel, Outdoor Life, 27 May 2020
  • The tiny orange critters infest plants that are too dry or whose leaves are covered in dust.
    Nan Sterman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Aug. 2021
  • If the library’s got bugs, and death beetles infested it in the 1970s, well, the stacks can turn into freezers.
    Brian T. Allen, National Review, 8 Feb. 2024
  • Expect to hear howls from inside the White House gates, and from the enablers infesting the cable green rooms as well.
    Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, 5 Dec. 2017
  • Nic Cage’s ex claims her rental house is infested with toxic black mold that makes her sick.
    Mark Shanahan, BostonGlobe.com, 24 Apr. 2018
  • No one knows how many thousands of pythons infest the Everglades.
    David Fleshler, sun-sentinel.com, 28 June 2019
  • People slept on the ground, froze in the cold, sweated in the heat, didn’t have enough to eat, couldn’t keep clean, and became infested with disease.
    Ephrat Livni, Quartz, 13 July 2019
  • It is most commonly carried by the black-legged or deer tick and can infest humans and pets.
    Kaleb A. Brown, Detroit Free Press, 17 June 2020
  • The panties become infested with the bacteria, yeast and mold.
    Essence, 9 Aug. 2019
  • The neighborhood -- once among the city's scariest and most crime infested -- has become a hub for the arts and creative types.
    Nikki Delamotte, cleveland.com, 22 Sep. 2017
  • As much as 4% to 6% of beans by count are also allowed to be insect-infested or moldy.
    Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 4 Oct. 2019
  • With Rothwell's help, researchers are still studying the timing of when SWD lay their eggs and infest the ripening fruit.
    Nour Rahal, Detroit Free Press, 25 Apr. 2023
  • The downside was that chickens had already lived there, so it was infested with fleas.
    National Geographic, 19 May 2017
  • Stressed plants can be infested by soft green aphids, thin and dark flower thrips, or tiny spider mites.
    Rebecca Bull Reed, Southern Living, 10 June 2024
  • Anhalt had been living in a home infested with black mold.
    Caroline Picard, Good Housekeeping, 9 Mar. 2017
  • The basement walls are crumbling, Brown said, and her home is infested with vermin.
    Gretchen Morgenson, NBC News, 5 July 2023
  • The victim in this case was me—though there will soon be many others as Guy Ritchie’s pox on Camelot infests the multiplexes.
    Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 11 May 2017
  • As evidence, the letter notes the number of lakes that are now infested.
    Jane Ford-Stewart, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 18 Oct. 2017
  • Four of the seven dogs were infested with fleas and the animals did not have access to clean water, Tarver said.
    Madeleine O'Neill, Baltimore Sun, 23 July 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'infest.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: