Adjacent Words

Molest definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MOLEST', v.t. [L. molestus, troublesome, molo. See Mill.]
To trouble; to disturb; to render uneasy.
They have molested the church with needless opposition.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: harass or assault sexually; make indecent advances to
2: annoy continually or chronically; "He is known to harry his staff when he is overworked"; "This man harasses his female co-workers" [syn: harass, hassle, harry, chivy, chivvy, chevy, chevvy, beset, plague, molest, provoke]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French molester, from Latin molestare, from molestus burdensome, annoying; akin to Latin moles mass Date: 14th century 1. to annoy, disturb, or persecute especially with hostile intent or injurious effect 2. to make annoying sexual advances to; especially to force physical and usually sexual contact on • molestation noun • molester noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. 1 annoy or pester (a person) in a hostile or injurious way. 2 attack or interfere with (a person), esp. sexually. Derivatives: molestation n. molester n. Etymology: OF molester or L molestare annoy f. molestus troublesome

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Molest Mo*lest", n. Molestation. [Obs.] --Chaucer.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Molest Mo*lest", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Molested; p. pr. & vb. n. Molesting.] [F. molester, L. molestare, fr. molestus troublesome, fr. moles a heavy mass, load, burden. See 3d Mole.] To trouble; to disturb; to render uneasy; to interfere with; to vex. They have molested the church with needless opposition. --Hooker. Syn: To trouble; disturb; incommode; inconvenience; annoy; vex; tease.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(molests, molesting, molested) A person who molests someone, especially a woman or a child, interferes with them in a sexual way against their will. He was accused of sexually molesting a female colleague. VERB: V n • molestation Any case of sexual molestation of a child should be reported to the police. • molester (molesters) He'd been publicly labeled a child molester. N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. Disturb, trouble, annoy, vex, tease, incommode, discommode, inconvenience, harass, worry, plague, bore, torment, bother, pester, harry, badger, irritate, fret, chafe, hector, gull, disturb, disquiet, oppress.

Moby Thesaurus

abuse, accost, afflict, aggravate, aggrieve, annoy, attack, badger, bait, batter, be at, bedevil, befoul, beleaguer, beset, bewitch, blight, bother, bristle, brown off, bruise, buffet, bug, bullyrag, burn up, chafe, chivy, condemn, corrupt, crucify, curse, damage, defile, deprave, despoil, destroy, devil, disadvantage, discompose, disserve, distemper, distress, disturb, do a mischief, do evil, do ill, do violence to, do wrong, do wrong by, do wrong to, dog, doom, envenom, exasperate, exercise, fash, gall, get, get into trouble, gripe, harass, harm, harry, heckle, hector, hex, hound, hunt, hurt, ill-treat, ill-use, impair, infect, injure, interfere with, irk, irritate, jinx, knock about, maltreat, manhandle, maul, meddle with, menace, miff, mishandle, mistreat, nag, needle, nettle, nudzh, oppress, outrage, paw, peeve, persecute, pester, pick on, pique, plague, play havoc with, play hob with, pluck the beard, poison, pollute, pother, prejudice, provoke, pursue, ride, rile, roil, rough, rough up, ruffle, savage, scathe, taint, tease, threaten, torment, torture, trouble, try the patience, tweak the nose, vex, victimize, violate, worry, wound, wreak havoc on, wrong