Adjacent Words

Pester definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PEST'ER, v.t. To trouble; to disturb; to annoy; to harass with little vexations.
We are pestered with mice and rats.
A multitude of scribblers daily pester the world with their insufferable stuff.
1. To encumber.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: annoy persistently; "The children teased the boy because of his stammer" [syn: tease, badger, pester, bug, beleaguer]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb (pestered; pestering) Etymology: modification of Middle French empestrer to hobble, embarrass, from Vulgar Latin *impastoriare, from Latin in- + Late Latin pastoria tether — more at pastern Date: 1533 1. obsolete overcrowd 2. to harass with petty irritations ; annoy Synonyms: see worry

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. trouble or annoy, esp. with frequent or persistent requests. Derivatives: pesterer n. Etymology: prob. f. impester f. F empestrer encumber: infl. by PEST

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pester Pes"ter, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pestered; p. pr. & vb. n. Pestering.] [Abbrev. fr. impester, fr. OF. empaistrier, empestrer, to entangle the feet or legs, to embarrass, F. emp[^e]trer; pref. em-, en- (L. in in) + LL. pastorium, pastoria, a fetter by which horses are prevented from wandering in the pastures, fr. L. pastorius belonging to a herdsman or shepherd, pastor a herdsman. See In, and Pasture, Pastor.] 1. To trouble; to disturb; to annoy; to harass with petty vexations. We are pestered with mice and rats. --Dr. H. More. A multitude of scribblers daily pester the world. --Dryden. 2. To crowd together in an annoying way; to overcrowd; to infest. [Obs.] --Milton. All rivers and pools . . . pestered full with fishes. --Holland.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(pesters, pestering, pestered) If you say that someone is pestering you, you mean that they keep asking you to do something, or keep talking to you, and you find this annoying. I thought she'd stop pestering me, but it only seemed to make her worse... I know he gets fed up with people pestering him for money. ...that creep who's been pestering you to go out with him. VERB: V n, V n prep, V n to-inf, also V [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Disturb, annoy, harass, provoke, nettle, trouble, plague, vex, tease, hector, harry, molest, bother, worry, fret, gall, bore, incommode, disquiet, infest, torment, badger, chafe, irritate. 2. Crowd, infest, encumber, fill.

Moby Thesaurus

aggravate, annoy, apply pressure, badger, bait, be at, bedevil, beleaguer, beset, besetment, besiege, blandish, bother, botheration, bristle, brown off, bug, bullyrag, burn up, buttonhole, cajole, carp at, chafe, chivy, coax, devil, discompose, distemper, disturb, dog, dun, exasperate, exasperation, exercise, exert pressure, fash, fret, fret at, fuss at, get, get at, get to, gripe, harass, harry, hassle, heckle, hector, henpeck, hound, importune, irk, irritant, irritate, miff, molest, nag, nag at, needle, nettle, nibble at, niggle, nudzh, nuisance, peck at, peeve, persecute, pest, pick at, pick on, pique, plague, pluck the beard, ply, pother, press, pressure, provoke, push, ride, rile, roil, ruffle, tantalize, tease, torment, try the patience, tweak the nose, urge, vex, wheedle, work on, worry, yap at