Pest vs. Vermin

Pestnoun

(originally) A plague, pestilence, epidemic

Verminnoun

Any one of various common types of small insects or animals which cause harm and annoyance.

‘The area was plagued by all sorts of vermin: fleas, lice, mice, and rats to name a few.’;

Pestnoun

Any destructive insect or caterpillar that attacks crops or livestock; an agricultural pest.

Verminnoun

Animals that prey on game, such as foxes or weasels.

Pestnoun

An annoying person, a nuisance.

Verminnoun

Obnoxious, or mean and offensive person or people.

‘Bring these vermin to the Palace of Justice.’;

Pestnoun

An animal regarded as a nuisance, destructive, or a parasite, vermin.

Vermin

An animal, in general.

‘Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and vermin, and worms, and fowls.’; ‘This crocodile is a mischievous fourfooted beast, a dangerous vermin, used to both elements.’;

Pestnoun

An invasive weed.

Vermin

A noxious or mischievous animal; especially, noxious little animals or insects, collectively, as squirrels, rats, mice, worms, flies, lice, bugs, etc.

‘Great injuries these vermin, mice and rats, do in the field.’; ‘They disdain such vermin when the mighty boar of the forest . . . is before them.’;

Pestnoun

A fatal epidemic disease; a pestilence; specif., the plague.

‘England's sufferings by that scourge, the pest.’;

Vermin

Hence, in contempt, noxious human beings.

‘You are my prisoners, base vermin.’;

Pestnoun

Anything which resembles a pest; one who, or that which, is troublesome, noxious, mischievous, or destructive; a nuisance.

Verminnoun

an irritating or obnoxious person

Pestnoun

a persistently annoying person

Verminnoun

any of various small animals or insects that are pests; e.g. cockroaches or rats

Verminnoun

wild animals that are believed to be harmful to crops, farm animals, or game, or which carry disease, e.g. rodents

‘killed as vermin or game, the pumas have gone’;

Verminnoun

parasitic worms or insects

‘his clothes are infested with vermin’;

Verminnoun

people perceived as despicable and as causing problems for the rest of society

‘the vermin who ransacked her house’;

Vermin

Vermin (colloquially varmint(s) or varmit(s)) are pests or nuisance animals that spread diseases or destroy crops or livestock. Since the term is defined in relation to human activities, which species are included vary by region and enterprise.