harass

From French harasser (“to tire out, to vex”), of obscure origin, perhaps from Old French harer (“to stir up, provoke, set a dog on”) and/or Old French harier (“to harry”); see harry; compare Old French, harace (“a basket made of cords”), harace, harasse (“a very heavy and large shield”).

• (General American) enPR: hərăsʹ, hăʹrəs, IPA^(key): /həˈɹæs/, /ˈhæɹəs/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hăʹrəs, hərăsʹ, IPA^(key): /ˈhæɹəs/, /həˈɹæs/
• Rhymes: -æs
• Rhymes: -ærəs

harass (third-person singular simple present harasses, present participle harassing, simple past and past participle harassed)

1. To fatigue or to tire with repeated and exhausting efforts.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     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 23

     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.

3. To put excessive burdens upon; to subject to anxieties.

   To harass good people is no different than speaking ill of them.

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

• harasser
• harassful
• harassment

• harass in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• harass in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

harass

1. (obsolete) devastation; waste

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

2. (obsolete) worry; harassment

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Byron to this entry?)

• hassar