Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To subject (another) to hostile or prejudicial remarks or actions; pressure or intimidate.
- transitive verb To irritate or torment persistently.
- transitive verb To make repeated attacks or raids on (an enemy, for example).
from The Century Dictionary.
- To fatigue or tire out, as with annoying labor, care, importunity, enforced watchfulness, misfortune, etc.; distress by perplexity; wear out, as with toil.
- Milit.: To annoy by repeated attacks; keep constantly on the defensive.
- To lay waste or desolate; raid.
- To rub or scrape.
- Synonyms Distress, etc. (see
afflict ); to jade, disturb, exhaust, fag. Seetrouble . - noun Harassment.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete Devastation; waste.
- noun rare Worry; harassment.
- transitive verb To fatigue; to tire with repeated and exhausting efforts; esp., to weary by importunity, teasing, or fretting; to cause to endure excessive burdens or anxieties; -- sometimes followed by
out .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
fatigue or to tire with repeated and exhausting efforts. - verb To
annoy endlessly or systematically; tomolest . - verb To put excessive
burdens upon; to subject to anxieties. - noun obsolete
devastation ;waste - noun obsolete
worry ;harassment
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb annoy continually or chronically
- verb exhaust by attacking repeatedly
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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After the fight that we didn't get to see with Bumblebee because we were forced to see a robotic gremlin harass 2 annoying kids, Barricade disappeared from the film.
New Transformers 2 Details Revealed at Hasbro Licensing Summit | /Film 2008
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I might also be said to be intending to "harass" -- who knows, given how vague the term is?
Archive 2009-05-01 Matt Johnston 2009
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Anyway, Myles wins the thread – by the time you’re harassing Pomona College students, the only more inoffensive and unlikely Americans left to harass is a senior citizens’ yoga group.
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February 10th, 2010 at 6: 09 pm by the time you’re harassing Pomona College students, the only more inoffensive and unlikely Americans left to harass is a senior citizens’ yoga group.
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Day to day, though, censorship is less about dissuading the truly motivated (though, if it can make them easy to detect and harass, that is a plus) and more about preventing the casual from becoming motivated.
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They think our money is spent paying officers to "harass" the hunting public or pick up dead deer along the highways.
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Would that more foreigners would "harass" people in this way in Taiwan.
Ghost Month, Teleology, Cognition, and Belief Michael Turton 2006
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Despite the frequency with which I use the verb "harass," I think this entry should've been entitled "Hassle Hasbro."
Harass Hasbro! Cheryl 2005
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Another opposition deputy singled out by Mugabe, Mike Auret, said there was nothing that Mugabe could "harass" him for.
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Immigration officials in the Transkei region were on a new campaign to "harass" expatriate teachers who had no work permits, a delegation of Indian nationals claimed in Umtata at the weekend.
adm commented on the word harass
one "r" or two, in all its forms? a long-time pain for me.
December 6, 2006
kewpid commented on the word harass
"harris" or "har-rass" ?
January 5, 2008
bilby commented on the word harass
The -ass is prevalent for me. So to speak.
October 21, 2008
ruzuzu commented on the word harass
"USAGE NOTE: Educated usage appears to be evenly divided on the pronunciation of harass. In a recent survey 50 percent of the Usage Panel preferred a pronunciation with stress on the first syllable, while 50 percent preferred stress on the second syllable. Curiously, the Panelists' comments appear to indicate that each side regards itself as an embattled minority."
--from The American Heritage Dictionary (3d ed.)
March 21, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word harass
Thanks, chelster!
March 23, 2011