| 释义 |
▪ I. harass, v.|ˈhærəs|
Also 7 harraze, har(r)asse, 7–8 harrass.
[a. F. harasser (1562 in Godef.) ‘to tire or toyle out, to spend or weaken, wearie or weare out by ouertoyling; also, to vex, disquiet, importune, harrie, hurrie, turmoile, torment’ (Cotgr.); perh. a derivative form of OF. harer to set a dog on.]
†1. trans. To wear out, tire out, or exhaust with fatigue, care, trouble, etc. Obs. or dial.
a1626Bacon (J.), These troops came to the army but the day before, harassed with a long and wearisome march. 1656Blount Glossogr., Harasse..to tire or toyl out, to spend or weaken, weary, or wear out. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 214 When athirst, restrain 'em from the Flood; Their Bodies harrass, sink 'em when they run. 1713Addison Cato v. i, Nature oppress'd, and harrass'd out with care, Sinks down to rest. 1720W. Gibson Diet. Horses x. (1731) 159 After they [horses] have been harass'd, and gone through their assigned Tasks..they should be rid gently out of the Manage. 1760–72tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) I. 37 They are so harrassed with labour, and their wages so small.
†2. To harry, lay waste, devastate, plunder. Obs.
a1618Raleigh Mahomet (1637) 65 Burnt and harrazed the Countrie. 1665Manley Grotius's Low C. Warres 261 While they harassed the Fields. 1684Scanderbeg Rediv. vi. 137 Parties which Harrassed and Plundred and Burnt all the Country. 1710Prideaux Orig. Tithes iv. 198 The Danish War..very cruelly harassed this Land.
3. To trouble or vex by repeated attacks.
1622Bacon Hen. VII, 63 (R.) To harrasse and wearie the English, they did vpon all aduantages set vpon them with their light-horse. 1727Swift Let. Eng. Tongue Wks. 1755 II. i. 183 The Britains..daily harrassed by cruel inroads from the Picts. 1783Polite Trav. 77 The new settlers had..no enemy to harrass them. 1838Thirlwall Greece III. 343 The Argives continued..to harass the Epidaurians with repeated incursions. 1865Parkman Huguenots i. (1875) 8 The Indians unceasingly harassed their march.
4. To trouble, worry, distress with annoying labour, care, perplexity, importunity, misfortune, etc.
1656Blount Glossogr., Harasse..also to vex, disquiet, etc. 1695Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iii. i. (1723) 158 Alarmed and harrassed by Earthquakes. 1738Johnson London 166 The griefs that harass the distress'd. 1855Milman Lat. Chr. (1864) III. vi. iii. 415 A mind harassed by the perplexing state of affairs. 1855Tennyson Maud i. xix. 22 Vext with lawyers and harass'd with debt.
transf.1737Whiston Josephus, Antiq. i. i. §4 When it [the ground] should be harassed by their labour, it should bring forth some of its fruits.
5. techn. To scrape or rub.
1875Ure's Dict. Arts III. 93 To soften the skins after dyeing, they are harassed by a knife, the point of which is curved upwards.
Hence ˈharassed ppl. a. (whence ˈharassedly adv.); ˈharassing ppl. a. (whence ˈharassingly adv.). Also ˈharassable a., capable of being harassed. ˈharasser, one who or that which harasses. ˈharassery (nonce-wd.), harassing action.
1882J. Hawthorne Fort. Fool i. xiv, She..knew where his *harassable points were and how to irritate them.
1693C. Dryden tr. Juvenal, Sat. vii. (1697) 178 Whether he should..into Quarters put his *harrass'd Men. 1726G. Shelvocke Voy. round World (1757) 217 Not..a seat whereon to rest our harrassed limbs. 1884L. J. Jennings in Croker papers I. xii. 359 His successor..passed a harassed life.
1891Harper's Weekly 19 Sept. 710/2 On the edge of life, fighting anxiously, *harassedly, for a foothold.
1707Lond. Gaz. No. 4322/1 Fire and Sword, the too too fatal *Harassers of these bordering Places. 1805G. Ellis Spec. E.E. Rom. I. 23 (R.) Unnumbered harassers Of the Fleet and Scots.
1834J. W. Croker in C. Papers 10 Dec. (1884), Well may you talk of ‘harassing cares’. The first that I dread for you are the personal *harasseries of individual pretenders.
1833H. Martineau Berkeley the Banker i. vii. 137 You must have had..an extremely *harassing day, Sir. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. II. ix. 389 The harassing attacks of the nimble Welsh.
1822W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. XCIX. 290 The roads became *harassingly bad. 1886Sat. Rev. 20 Mar. 417 Schumann literature..has become almost harassingly voluminous.
▸ trans. To subject (an individual or group) to unwarranted (and now esp. unlawful) physical or psychological intimidation, usually persistently over a period; to persecute. Also more generally: to beleaguer, pester.
1788M. Wollstonecraft Mary v. 37 This man made a private fortune by harassing the tenants of the person to whom he was deputy. a1817J. Austen Northanger Abbey (1818) I. iii. 33, I know exactly what you will say: Friday, went to the Lower Rooms..; was strangely harassed by a queer, half-witted man who would make me dance with him, and distressed me by his nonsense. 1855Househ. Words 8 Dec. 442/2 He harassed me with questions about the book as pertinaciously as any senate-house examiner. 1890U.S. Rep. (U.S. Supreme Court) 133625 He is allowed..[to] save the mortgagor..from being harassed for the payment of the debt. 1958U.S. Rep. (U.S. Supreme Court) 355133 The plant manager was followed by the strikers each time he left the plant; he was also harassed at night..by numerous anonymous telephone calls. 1977J. Burke Jowitt's Dict. Eng. Law (ed. 2) I. 890/2 A person commits an offence if..he harasses the other with demands for payment which..are calculated to subject him or members of his family or household to alarm, distress or humiliation. 1984S. Townsend Growing Pains A. Mole 18 Mitzi's owner, a Mrs. Carmichael, said that if our dog ‘continued harassing Mitzi’ she would be forced to report our dog to the police. 1993Time 18 Jan. 45/3 Since 1990 at least 28 states have passed ‘stalking laws’ that make it a crime to threaten, follow or harass someone.
▪ II. ˈharass, n.
[f. prec. vb.]
Harassment.
1667Waterhouse Fire Lond. 66 This late harrass of us by a more than Gottish and Vandallique fire. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) IV. xliii. 286 The harasses and doubts under which I have laboured. 1814Byron Lara ii. xi, The daily harass, and the fight delay'd. 1875M. Pattison Casaubon 31 He struggles, all through a life of harass, to have his time for himself. |