a pox on

Meaning

Interjection

• To express curses upon (somebody), when irked or wroth, as though wishing someone "a pox".
• To hell with (abstract or unalive things).

Related

Similar words

• woe betide, fie upon, to hell with

Origin

• Originally an expression of abuse to wish that someone develop pocks, that is to say, contract pox. Though pox can range from smallpox to chickenpox to cowpox to syphilis, this expression almost always referred to the last one, the Great Pox.