Search the Dictionary

One who pesters or harasses.

Fig.: To vex; to tease; to harass. She will plague the man that loves her most. Spenser.

To harass and perplex; to worry. "Pothers and wearies himself." Locke.

To stretch or strain, in a figurative sense; hence, to harass, or oppress by extortion. The landlords there shamefully rack their tenants. Spenser. They [landlords] rack a Scripture simile beyond the true intent thereof. Fuller. Try what my credit can in Venice do; That shall be racked even to the uttermost. Shak.…

To harass or afflict severely. To scourge and impoverish the people. Brougham.

The sudden issuing of a body of troops, usually small, from a besieged place to attack or harass the besiegers; a sally.

Fig.: To oppress with hardships, burdens, or taxes; to harass; to crush. In a civil war, people must expect to be crushed and squeezed toward the burden. L'Estrange.

To harass; to fatigue. [Obs.] Clarendon.

To vex with importunity or impertinence; to harass, annoy, disturb, or irritate by petty requests, or by jests and raillery; to plague. Cowper. He . . . suffered them to tease him into acts directly opposed to his strongest inclinations. Macaulay.

Like a thorn or thorns; hence, figuratively, troublesome; vexatious; harassing; perplexing. "The thorny point of bare distress." Shak. The steep and thorny way to heaven. Shak. Thorny rest-harrow (Bot.), rest-harrow. -- Thorny trefoil, a prickly plant of the genus Fagonia (F. Cretica, etc.).

oil, all hopes of safety past. Dryden. To tire out, to weary or fatigue to exhaustion; to harass.

To tease; to vex; to harass; as, to be tormented with importunities, or with petty annoyances. [Colloq.]

To put to torture; to pain extremely; to harass; to vex.

Hence, to try; to harass. Whom devils fly, thus is he tossed of men. Herbert.

To harass; to tire. [Obs.] As if all these troubles had not been sufficient to travail the realm, a great division fell among the nobility. Hayward.

Harassed; fatigued with travel. [Obs.] Shak.

That which tries or afflicts; that which harasses; that which tries the character or principles; that which tempts to evil; as, his child's conduct was a sore trial. Every station is exposed to some trials. Rogers.

Harassing labor; trouble; molestation by tumult; disturbance; worrying confusion. And there I'll rest, as after much turmoil, A blessed soul doth in Elysium. Shak.

To make angry or annoyed by little provocations; to irritate; to plague; to torment; to harass; to afflict; to trouble; to tease. "I will not vex your souls." Shak. Then thousand torments vex my heart. Prior.

A harassing by process of law; a vexing or troubling, as by a malicious suit. Bacon.