be at the plague

be at the plague (third-person singular simple present is at the plague, present participle being at the plague, simple past was at the plague, past participle been at the plague)

1. (obsolete, idiomatic) To be bothered; to make the effort to do something.
   • 1748, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random:

     One of a hundred a year, or so, is all I wish:—I would not be at the plague of paying land-tax for a larger.

   • 1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, III, or IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC:

     I am a man of few word but I am laird at hame, as weel as in the field; deil a brute or body about my house but I can manage when I like, except Rory Bean, my powny; but I can seldom be at the plague, an it binna when my bluid's up.