pester
UK /ˈpɛstə(ɹ)/ · US /ˈpɛstɚ/ verb, noun
Forms pesters pestering pestered
- verb (transitive) To bother, harass, or annoy persistently. “He pestered me with questions.”
- verb (obsolete, transitive and intransitive) To crowd together thickly.
- noun A bother or nuisance.
Synonyms
badger beleaguer bug hound plague cattle up crowd flock huddle throng bait bedevil persecute dog bullyrag besiege devil beset chevy give someone grief tease
Antonyms
get out of someone's ear get out of someone's face get up off give someone a break leave alone let alone lay off tolerate
Etymology
In the senses of “overcrowd (a place)” and “impede (a person)”: from Middle French and Old French empestrer (“encumber”), influenced by English pest. The modern sense is an extension of the sense “infest”. Comparable to English construction pest + -er (used to form frequentative verbs).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To trouble; to disturb; to annoy; to harass with petty vexations.
- verb To crowd together in an annoying way; to overcrowd; to infest.
Etymology [Abbrev. fr. impester, fr. OF. empaistrier, empestrer, to entangle the feet or legs, to embarrass, F. empêtrer; 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.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pester”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details