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Webster 1913 Edition

Harass

Har′ass

(hăr′as or hȧ-răs′)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Harassed
(hăr′ast or hȧ-răst′)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Harassing
.]
[F.
harasser
; cf. OF.
harace
a basket made of cords,
harace
,
harasse
,a very heavy and large shield; or
harer
to set (a dog) on.]
To fatigue; to tire with repeated and exhausting efforts; esp., to weary by importunity, teasing, or fretting; to cause to endure excessive burdens or anxieties; – sometimes followed by out.
[Troops]
harassed
with a long and wearisome march.
Bacon.
Nature oppressed and
harass’d
out with care.
Addison.
Syn. – To weary; jade; tire; perplex; distress; tease; worry; disquiet; chafe; gall; annoy; irritate; plague; vex; molest; trouble; disturb; torment.

Har′ass

,
Noun.
1.
Devastation; waste.
[Obs.]
Milton.
2.
Worry; harassment.
[R.]
Byron.

Webster 1828 Edition

Harass

HAR'ASS

, v.t.
1.
To weary; to fatigue to excess; to tire with bodily labor; as, to harass an army by a long march.
2.
To weary with importunity, care, or perplexity; to tease; to perplex.
Nature oppress'd and harrass'd out with care.
3.
To waste or desolate.

HAR'ASS

,
Noun.
Waste; disturbance; devastation. [Little used.]

Definition 2024

harass

harass

English

Verb

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.
    Nazis and their sympathizers harassed Jews and Gypsies in the early 1940s.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

External links

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

Noun

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?)

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

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