Link Centre Dictionary

harass

ha·rass

UK/ˈhæɹəs/ US/həˈɹæs/ fairly common

verb

1.

annoy continually or chronically

  • “He is known to harry his staff when he is overworked”
  • “This man harasses his female co-workers”
Synonyms
2.

exhaust by attacking repeatedly

  • “harass the enemy”

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • don't ask, don't tell, don't harass, don't pursue
  • sexually harass

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.