harassment

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ha·rass

(hə-răs′, hăr′əs)

tr.v. ha·rassed, ha·rass·ing, ha·rass·es

1. To subject (another) to hostile or prejudicial remarks or actions; pressure or intimidate.

2. To irritate or torment persistently: His mind was harassed by doubts and misgivings.

3. To make repeated attacks or raids on (an enemy, for example).

[French harasser, from Old French (a la) harache, (a la) harace (as in courre a la harache, to chase) : hare, call used to set dogs on (of Germanic origin; see ko- in Indo-European roots) + -ache, -ace, deprecative n. suff.]

ha·rass′er n.

ha·rass′ment n.

Synonyms: harass, harry, hound, badger, pester, plague
These verbs mean to trouble persistently or incessantly. Harass and harry imply systematic persecution by besieging with repeated annoyances, threats, or demands: The landlord harassed the tenants who were behind in their rent. "John Adams and John Quincy Adams, pillars of personal rectitude, were harried throughout their presidencies by accusations of corruption, fraud, and abuses of power" (Alan Brinkley and Davis Dyer).
Hound suggests unrelenting pursuit to gain a desired end: Reporters hounded the celebrity for an interview. To badger is to nag or entreat persistently: The child badgered his parents for a new bicycle. To pester is to inflict a succession of petty annoyances: "How she would have pursued and pestered me with questions and surmises" (Charlotte Brontë).
Plague refers to a problem likened to a noxious disease: "As I have no estate, I am plagued with no tenants or stewards" (Henry Fielding).

Usage Note: The pronunciation of harass with stress on the first syllable (rhyming roughly with Paris) is the older, traditional pronunciation. The pronunciation with stress on the second syllable (rhyming roughly with surpass) is a newer pronunciation that first occurred in American English. Its use has steadily increased since the mid-1900s. In our 1987 survey, 50 percent of the Usage Panel preferred the pronunciation with stress on the first syllable, and 50 percent preferred stress on the second syllable. Fourteen years later, in our 2001 survey, preference for stress on the first syllable dropped to 30 percent while preference for stress on the second syllable rose to 70 percent. The results from our 2013 survey suggest that this trend away from the traditional pronunciation has continued: only 10 percent preferred the stress on the first syllable, whereas 90 percent preferred the pronunciation with the stress on the second syllable. In fact, in 2013, 35 percent of the Panel considered the pronunciation with the stress on the first syllable to be unacceptable. The original pronunciation has almost completely given way in only a few decades, at least in the United States.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ha•rass•ment

(həˈræs mənt, ˈhær əs-)
n.

1. the act of harassing.

2. the fact of being harassed.

[1750–60]

harassment

An incident in which the primary objective is to disrupt the activities of a unit, installation, or ship, rather than to inflict serious casualties or damage.

Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. US Department of Defense 2005.

Harassment

dun See SOLICITATION.

from pillar to post See DIRECTION.

get off [someone’s] back To stop bothering, irritating, or criticizing another person; similar to the currently popular get off [someone’s] case. This expression is usually spoken in the command form by a desperate victim of incessant nagging or harassment.

Then stop picking on me, will you? Get off my back, will you? (Joseph Heller, Catch-22, 1961)

the heat’s on The police are hot on one’s trail; the pressure is on. Heat can refer to a gun, a policeman, or other external source of pressure. In this originally U.S. slang expression dating from the early 20th century, heat combines the latter two meanings.

But the word went out that the government heat was on. The FBI was known to be relentless in its pursuit. (H. Corey, Farewell, Mr. Gangster, 1936)

The heat’s on currently applies to any pressure-ridden situation, though its most frequent usage is still police-related.

make it hot for To make things very uncomfortable or unpleasant for someone, especially through repeated harassment or persecution; to make trouble for. This expression and the variant to make it too hot for were precursors of the American slang phrase to turn the heat on ‘to apply pressure to.’

Caesar Augustus thought good to make that practice too hot for them. (Edmund Bolton, The Roman Histories of Lucius Julius Florus, translated 1618)

play cat and mouse with To tease, toy with, or torment; to be engaged in a power struggle in which one takes the role of cat, or oppressor, and victimizes the mouse, or weaker party; to outwit one’s opponent; to take part in a round of near capture and escape. The Cat-and-mouse Act, a nickname for the Prisoners Act of 1913 which enabled hunger strikers to be released temporarily, popularized use of the phrase cat and mouse in the early 1900s.

The Administration played a curious cat-and-mouse game with the Jewish self-defence organization. (Arthur Koestier, Promise and Fulfillment, 1949)

ride herd on See DOMINATION.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	harassment - a feeling of intense annoyance caused by being tormented; "so great was his harassment that he wanted to destroy his tormentors" torment vexation, annoyance, chafe - anger produced by some annoying irritation
	2.	harassment - the act of tormenting by continued persistent attacks and criticism molestation mistreatment - the practice of treating (someone or something) badly; "he should be punished for his mistreatment of his mother" baiting - harassment especially of a tethered animal badgering, bedevilment, worrying, torment - the act of harassing someone sexual harassment - unwelcome sexual behavior by a supervisor toward an employee tantalization, teasing, ribbing, tease - the act of harassing someone playfully or maliciously (especially by ridicule); provoking someone with persistent annoyances; "he ignored their teases"; "his ribbing was gentle but persistent" witch-hunt - searching out and harassing dissenters

harassment

noun hassle, trouble, bother, grief (informal), torment, irritation, persecution (informal), nuisance, badgering, annoyance, pestering, aggravation (informal), molestation, vexation, bedevilment 51 percent of women had experienced some form of sexual harassment.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

harassment

noun

The act of annoying:

annoyance, botheration, bothering, exasperation, irritation, pestering, provocation, vexation.

Translations

مُضَايَقَةمُضايَقَه، مُلاحَقَه

obtěžovánídotírání

chikane

Belästigung Mobbing Schikane

παρενόχληση

acoso

ahdisteluhäirintä

harcèlement

uznemiravanje

áreitni

molestia tormento turbamento fastidio

いやがらせ

괴롭힘

obťažovanie

trakasserier

การรังควาน

taciztaciz etme

sự quấy rối

骚扰困扰烦恼讨厌的东西或人

harassment

[ˈhærəsmənt] N → acoso m (Mil) → hostigamiento m
sexual harassment → acoso m sexual

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

harassment

[ˈhærəsmənt həˈræsmənt] n → harcèlement m
police harassment → harcèlement m policier
media harassment → harcèlement m médiatique sexual harassment, racial harassment

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

harassment

n (= act) → Belästigung f, → Bedrängung f; (= messing around) → Schikanierung f; (= state) → Bedrängnis f; (Mil) → Kleinkrieg m; constant harassment of the enemy → ständiger Kleinkrieg gegen den Feind; police harassment → Schikane f → vonseiten or von Seiten der Polizei; racial harassment → rassistisch motivierte Schikanierung; sexual harassment → sexuelle Belästigung

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

harassment

[ˈhærəsmənt] n (action) → persecuzione f; (less severe) → molestia; (feeling) → insofferenza

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

harass

(ˈhӕrəs) , ((especially American) həˈras) verb

1. to annoy or trouble (a person) constantly or frequently. The children have been harassing me all morning.

2. to make frequent sudden attacks on (an enemy). The army was constantly harassed by groups of terrorists.

ˈharassed adjective

a harassed mother.

ˈharassment noun

He complained of harassment by the police.

sexual harassmentsex

harassment

→ مُضَايَقَة obtěžování chikane Belästigung παρενόχληση acoso ahdistelu harcèlement uznemiravanje molestia いやがらせ 괴롭힘 pesterij trakassering molestowanie assédio притеснение trakasserier การรังควาน taciz sự quấy rối 骚扰

harassment

n. acosamiento, perturbación, vejamen;

sexual ___ → acosamiento sexual.

harassment

n acoso; sexual — acoso sexual

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

Russell Square was the boundary of her prison: she might walk thither occasionally, but was always back to sleep in her cell at night; to perform cheerless duties; to watch by thankless sick-beds; to suffer the harassment and tyranny of querulous disappointed old age.

View in context

They would see her agitation; and the dairyman, thinking the cause to be love alone, would good-naturedly tease her; and that harassment could not be borne.

View in context

If my reasoning powers had not been already sapped dry by my harassments, I would have known better than to try to set an umbrella on end on one of those glassy German floors in the dark; it can't be done in the daytime without four failures to one success.

View in context

* Sexual harassment investigations should be coordinated, and results shared, across federal agencies.

Treating Sexual Harassment as a Violation of Research Integrity: Sexual harassment harms researchers and the research enterprise in pervasive and pernicious ways that are not commonly understood or addressed

(VRC), a leading human resources consulting group, is inviting corporate professionals to an upcoming seminar on harassment prevention in the workplace.

Unique Harassment Prevention Seminar Open to Chicagoland Professionals

feel they've experienced workplace harassment, and half of them believe it was due to their gender.

Harassment in the Workplace

Gender Plays a Big Role in Workplace Harassment: Hiscox Survey

23, 2018, New York State released its draft guidance for employer compliance with the new sexual harassment prevention laws.

HR Connection: Changing employee behavior regarding sexual harassment

However, as women increasingly enter these fields they face biases and barriers and it is not surprising that sexual harassment is one of these barriers.

Sexual Harassment of Women

Though harassment has been a long-standing issue in the Egyptian community, over the past two years the topic was submerged by others.

Definition of sexual harassment continues to face uncertainty, awaits laws to be enforced

By Kim Hyun-bin The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRC) and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism jointly announced a new set of policy proposals to better prevent sexual harassment in the entertainment and arts sectors, Tuesday.