Harass

Pronunciation

• GenAm enPR: hÉ™răsʹ, IPA: /həˈɹæs/
• Rhymes: -æs
• RP enPR: hăʹrÉ™s, IPA: /ˈhæɹəs/
• Rhymes: -ærÉ™s

Origin

From Old French harasser ("to tire out, to vex"). Origin uncertain; compare Old French harier ("harry"); see harry

compare Old French, harace ("a basket made of cords"), harace, harasse ("a very heavy and large shield; or harer to set (a dog) on").

Full definition of harass

Verb

1. To fatigue or to tire with repeated and exhausting efforts.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 4, No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or.... And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.
2. To annoy endlessly or systematically; to molest.
• 1877, Anna Sewell, Black Beauty Chapter 23http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Black_Beauty/23In my old home, I always knew that John and my master were my friends; but here, although in many ways I was well treated, I had no friend. York might have known, and very likely did know, how that rein harassed me; but I suppose he took it as a matter of course that could not be helped; at any rate nothing was done to relieve me.
3. To put excessive burdens upon; to subject to anxieties. and their sympathizers harassed and in the early 1940s.

Synonyms

• hassle
• harry
• chivy or chivvy
• chevy or chevvy
• beset
• plague
• molest
• provoke

Derived terms

• harasser
• harassment

Noun