Noi"some (?), a. [For noysome, fr. noy for annoy. See Annoy.]
1.
Noxious to health; hurtful; mischievous; unwholesome; insalubrious; destructive; as, noisome effluvia.
"
Noisome pestilence."
Ps. xci. 3.
2.
Offensive to the smell or other senses; disgusting; fetid.
"Foul breath is
noisome."
Shak.
-- Noi"some*ly, adv. -- Noi"some*ness, n.
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.
© Webster 1913.