figurative. To treat (a person) abusively or with contumely; to vex, torment; to harass, afflict; to abuse, outrage, profane. Obsolete.

transitive. To make miserable, grieve, harass, vex.

transitive. To trouble, harass, afflict (a person). Also reflexive.

figurative. To encompass, surround, assail, possess detrimentally. said of temptations, dangers, difficulties, obstacles, evil influences.

To stand round in hostility; to beset, press hard upon, harass.

transitive. To inflict suffering upon; to afflict, harass; to injure, harm.

figurative. To persecute or harass with persistent attacks (a person more or less unable to escape); to worry or torment in an exasperating manner…

To affect with grief or deep sorrow. †Formerly, in wider sense: to vex, trouble, or oppress mentally; to cause pain, anxiety, or vexation to; to…

To harass, persecute. Obsolete.

transitive. To annoy, trouble, harass; to harm or injure. Occasionally in passive: to be annoyed or vexed.

transitive. To follow (a person) with hostility or enmity; to seek to injure; to persecute; to harass, worry, torment. Obsolete (in later use…

transitive. To torment, distress, or harass (a person or animal); to afflict, trouble; to weary, tire. Chiefly in passive in later use. Now rare.

to work (also do) annoy and variants: to discomfort, trouble; to do damage or harm; to cause annoyance, irritation, or vexation. Frequently with a…

transitive. To bring tribulation upon; to distress, harass, afflict.

transitive. Originally: to cause pain to (a person). Later chiefly: to trouble, harass, annoy; (also) to tease. Now rare (Scottish and English reg…

to†holdor keep waking; earlier, †to hold waken: To prevent from sleeping; to keep watchful or on the alert. †Formerly: To keep (a person, esp. an…

figurative. To persecute, harass. Obsolete.

transitive. To compress with a turning movement; to wring; also figurative to torment, harass. Obsolete.

To envelop, entangle, or implicate (a person, etc.) in (†into), to surround, encompass, or beset with, some (esp. prejudicial) condition of…

To harass, distress, trouble. Obsolete (except with mixture of sense 4: to incommode, bother).

To worry, goad, torment, harass; to maltreat, ill-use, persecute; to worry mentally.

transitive. To trouble, afflict, or harass (a person, etc.) by aggression, encroachment, or other interference with peace and quiet; to cause…

Of enemies, etc.: To press hardly upon, harass, give trouble to. Obsolete.

To prevent (a person) from living in peace and quietness; to annoy, molest, harass.

transitive. To interfere or meddle with (a person, animal, etc.) injuriously or with hostile intent; to pester or harass, esp. in an aggressive or…

To pursue, persecute, worry, trouble. Obsolete.

transitive. To afflict, trouble, vex, worry; to harass; to pester, importune, or annoy persistently.

transitive. To do harm or hurt to; to injure; to molest, oppress.

transitive. To attack, trouble, molest, disturb. Scottish.

transitive. To harry; to worry; to harass.

transitive. To torment, trouble (a person); to harass, annoy, pester; to find fault with. Also intransitive. Now English regional, U.S. regional, and…

transitive. To harass (a person) persistently; to harry; to pester. Cf. haul, v. 1c. Obsolete.

esp. To harass, vex, worry; to afflict, make anxious, ‘prove’.

intransitive. to grate onor upon. To oppress or harass with exactions or importunities; to make burdensome demands upon. Obsolete.

to†holdor keep waking; earlier, †to hold waken: To prevent from sleeping; to keep watchful or on the alert. †Formerly: To keep (a person, esp. an…

transitive. To attack, assail, annoy, or trouble (a person or thing) in a persistent manner; to… Said of persons, animals, hurtful things. Now rare.

figurative. To punish, chastise, correct (often said of God, with reference to Hebrews xii. 6); to ‘lash’ with satire or invective; to afflict…

transitive. To harass, torment; = molest, v. 2a.

figurative. transitive. To afflict, trouble, distress, or harass (a person, heart, etc.), as though by a pinch.

transitive. To trouble, afflict, distress; to discomfit, harass. Obsolete.

To rate soundly, abuse violently. (Very common in 16–17th centuries.) Also, to harass, afflict.

Falconry. intransitive. Of a hawk: To pull or tear with the beak at a tough morsel given to it that it may exercise itself in this way; also, to…

transitive. Chiefly passive and reflexive. To weary, fatigue; to harass, torment, worry. Also with object complement. Now rare.

transitive. To trouble, bother, or annoy (a person) persistently, esp. with petty and reiterated questions or requests; to vex, plague.

transitive. To be a nuisance or inconvenience to; to trouble; to pester, harass. Obsolete (archaic in later use).

figurative. To pursue with injury or annoyance; to persecute, pester, worry.

transitive. To confuse, perplex, bewilder; to exhaust, overcome, stupefy; (occasionally) to pester (cf. mither, v. 2). Chiefly reflexive or in passive…

to bait or worry persistently.

transitive. To make lean; to mortify, harass, torment.

transitive. To pester greatly, plague, vex, harass.

Of actions resembling a ferret's. To hunt after; to worry. Also with about.

transitive. To aggravate, exacerbate.

transitive. To agitate, disturb, excite; to molest, harass, worry. Obsolete exc. dialect. Cf. hurry, n. 1.

figurative. To vex, harass, oppress. (Chiefly said of a metaphorical ‘yoke’, ‘fetters’, or ‘harness’.)

transitive. To worry or exercise with toil.

To trouble by importunity (heaven, the gods, etc.).

transitive. To afflict; to oppress; to trouble greatly.

To trouble, worry, distress with annoying labour, care, perplexity, importunity, misfortune, etc.

transitive. To pester or plague (a person) with something unpleasant, esp. repeated arguments or unwanted comments; to assail constantly. Usually…

transitive. To overrun, ravage; to harry or worry excessively; to harass.

In lighter sense: To vex, distress, or persecute by inconsiderate or importunate behaviour; to plague or pester with reiterated demands, requests…

colloquial. To worry, torment, pester. Obsolete.

In weakened use. transitive. to plague the life out of and variants: to wear out by constant or excessive teasing or nagging.

transitive. To bait, hound; to subject to persistent harassment or persecution; to pester, bother; (in later use frequently) to ply with repeated…

transitive. figurative. To harass, worry. Cf. heckle, v. 3. Obsolete.

transferred. With adverb (e.g. out, down) or adverbial phr.: To get or bring into a specified condition by harassing treatment, persistent…

To drive frantic, to bewilder with worry; to torment, worry, ‘bother’.

transitive. Originally U.S. colloquial. To mistreat or pester (a person) excessively; to harass, annoy, tease. Cf. bedevil, v. 3.

transitive. To make a victim of; to cause to suffer inconvenience, discomfort, annoyance, etc., either deliberately or by misdirected attentions.

transitive. To harass, worry.

transitive. To bother, pester, worry, irritate. Also intransitive.

transitive. to pester the life (also soul, dickens,etc.) out of = to plague the life out of at plague, v. 2b.

transitive. English regional (Yorkshire and Westmorland). To pester (the life, etc.) out of a person; to harass; to badger. Also: to urge or…

transitive. To chase.

transitive. To obsess, haunt, besiege. Cf. obsess, v.

intransitive. To affect (a person's mind, etc.) in such a way as to harass, obsess, or cause to become a source of worry; esp. in to get on a perso…

To supply in excess or overwhelming abundance with. Chiefly in past participle loaded (†loaden) with: charged, fraught, or heavily laden with…

transitive. To bother, pester; to harass. Also occasionally intransitive: to cause trouble or inconvenience.

transitive. To pester or badger (a person) to do something or about something; to harass. Also in extended use.

transitive. To harass, to bedevil; to snub. (Only in P. G. Wodehouse.)

Chiefly North American. A dispute, a quarrel, an argument. Also: argument, wrangling.

to breathe down (the back of) (someone's) neck: to be overbearingly close behind (someone); (figurative) to keep a close or oppressive watch upon…

slang (originally and chiefly U.S.). to bust (also break) (a person's) chops and variants: to harangue, berate, or harass (a person); to tease or…

transitive. To pester, to nag at. Also intransitive: to whine, to complain persistently.

colloquial (originally Australian). transitive. To attack, harass, pester, beset.