harass
/ˈharəs
/ /həˈras /- A pensioner who was harassed by aggressive beggars in Swindon town centre has backed a campaign to stop vagrants pestering shoppers for cash.
- It would assume that anyone who says they don't own a car at all is lying and it would harass them continually with aggressive letters and vague threats.
- Both harass the unemployed, pressuring them further into exploitative employment.
Synonyms
- In addition the crusaders used light cavalry and horse archers in large numbers to harass the enemy, to scout, and to supplement the knights.
- Our pilots were used to harassing the enemy by strafing rail and truck areas, infantry and anything that moved.
- The wise general never gives battle but on favourable ground; and until he has found it, he manoeuvres, skirmishes, and harasses the enemy.
Synonyms
Usage
There are two possible pronunciations of the word harass: one with the stress on the har- and the other with the stress on the -ass. The former pronunciation is the older one and is regarded by some people as the only correct one, especially in British English. However, the pronunciation with the stress on the second syllable -rass is very common and is now accepted as a standard alternative.
Derivatives
harasser
- As a result of some histrionic accusations of being ‘sexist pornographers’ and sexual harassers, my friend and I were rousted from our beds by the campus Gestapo at a ridiculously early hour.
- A large group of the harassers, led by a security policewoman, surrounded the car and yelled abuse.
- It is akin to asking sexual harassers to assess themselves when it is obvious they find their behaviour acceptable on their own terms.
harassingly
- The trooper, still harassingly close behind, was also lingering and not turning on his lights.
- Nowadays these artificial limitations are no longer bound to exploding online costs or harassingly slow connections.
- If ‘activation’ should require that I had to apply to Adobe every time this happened, I'd consider it harassingly burdensome and unacceptable.
Origin
Early 17th century: from French harasser, from harer 'set a dog on', from Germanic hare, a cry urging a dog to attack.
This came from French in the early 17th century and is probably from harer ‘to set a dog on’. The notion of intimidation arose during the 19th century, with sexual harassment acquiring particular prominence in the 1970s. The sound and sense of harass may be similar to those of harry, but the two are unrelated: harry (Old English) goes back to an ancient root meaning ‘army, host’, which also gave us the bird called a harrier (mid 16th century), but not the dogs (Late Middle English), which got their name from the hares they were bred to hunt.
Rhymes
- southern sea lion
- southern-side
- southern state
- Southern Tier
- southern-tinted
- Southern Triangle
- southernwood
- Southeyan
- Southey, Robert
- south-facing
- Southfield
- south-following
- South Gate
- South Georgia
- South Glamorgan
- south-going
- South Hadley
- south half
- southing
- South Island
- South Islander
- South Jordan
- South Ken
- South Kensington
- South Kingstown