GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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