pesthole n a breeding ground for epidemic disease Usage(s) Pennsylvania, rich, but with many pesthole slums, cut its lung-tuberculosis death rate from 37 per 100,000 in 1945 to 16 in 1952. Under the dry surface he came on what looked like a pesthole. But for its 245,000 inhabitants, jammed into some 230 narrow city blocks, Harlem is a virtual pesthole.