harass
/həˈɹæs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.28 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To trouble (someone, or a group of people) through repeated military-style attacks.
Transitive verb
verb
Often followed by out: to fatigue or tire (someone) with exhausting and repeated efforts.
Obsolete; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "For it is a stout calf, ripe for the temples and altar [to be sacrificed], and to be sprinkled with wine; who is now ashamed to draw the dugs of his mother, and who harasseth the oaks with his budding horn."
- "In 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."
- "Some who dwell in wildernesses, / who seek and occupy, by their own wills, homes in dark caverns, these await / the heavenly dwelling-place; he who grudgeth them life, / oft bringeth hateful terror upon them; / sometimes he showeth them horror, sometimes vain glory; / the wily murderer hath power of both, / and harasseth these lonely-dwellers; […]"
- "Scottie, a precocious 10-year old,^([sic]) wears provocatively sloganed T-shirts and harasses her peers by text message."
- "I am gay and have AIDS and would very much like to write to someone. It is vey lonely here and they seem to think I'm going to die soon, though I wonder if they aren't just harassing me."
- "In February 2004, we developed a technique using compressed air to physically and audibly harass the birds. […] One person slowly (< 5 mph) drove a pick-up truck through the airport terminal at dusk while the second person sat on a bench in the truck bed and directed the compressed air from the pipe into the canopy to harass starlings attempting to enter the roost site."
Etymology
The verb is derived from Middle French, Old French harasser (“to exhaust, tire out, wear out; to harry, torment, vex”) (modern French harasser (“to exhaust, tire out, wear out”)), possibly from Old French harer (“to set a dog on”), from Frankish *hara (“here, hither”) (a command for a dog to attack), from Proto-Germanic *hē₂r (“here, in this place”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe (“here; this”) + *ís (“the (person or thing just named)”) + *-r. The noun is derived from the verb.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /həˈɹæs/
- British English: /həˈɹæs/