1945 Down Beat 15 Feb. 1/5 Building bands is getting to be a habit with Freddie Slack. He broke up his last few after booking hassels.

1946 Sat. Evening Post 31 Aug. 72/2 ‘Hassle’ is a gorgeously descriptive word which lately has won wide usage in show business.

1950 B. Schulberg Disenchanted ix. 96 She's actually a society girl..who's had a hassel with her family and wants to prove she can get by on her own.

1958 W. C. Williams Paterson iv. 194 The street, is nicknamed the Bourse, because of the continual political and banking haggle and hassel that goes on there.

1973 College Eng. 34 828/1 Ain nothin in a long time lit up the English teaching profession like the current hassle over Black English.

2009 E. B. Bynum Roots of Transcendence v. 209 He was, as you observed, very argumentative, and at times would get into a hassle with you over seemingly nothing.

1959 W. S. Burroughs Naked Lunch 19 Shooting PG is a terrible hassle, you have to burn out the alcohol first, then freeze out the camphor.

1986 W. Kay Scots (1988) 151 It is so much simpler to speak English and save yourself the hassle.

1986 V. Seth Golden Gate 45 Was it a hassle finding this place?

2007 Park Home & Holiday Caravan Jan. 17/2 An excellent bus service..takes the hassle out of commuting and shopping.

1969 N. Cohn Pop from Beginning xviii. 164 They'd be obnoxious to most everyone and they'd cause endless hassle.

1979 Spare Rib Dec. 15 It was hard work on the picket line... There was quite a bit of hassle from men going home at closing time.

1989 in M. C. Flynn Independent Living for Adults v. 66 They give me hassle. I do get a lot of hassle... All me windows get smashed.

2015 Irish Independent (Nexis) 2 Mar. I attended an all-boys boarding school at second level, and I started to get hassle about being gay.

1968 Dubois County (Indiana) Daily Herald 21 Dec. 14/1 [Hippies] have a fairly hassle-free Yule in which a..pack of cigarette papers is likely to say ‘Merry Christmas’.

1986 USA Today 23 May a1/1 Experts reveal cooking secrets, tips on hassle-free outdoor parties.

2013 What Car? Nov. 119/3 They'd wanted a hassle-free car for their retirement.

1901 E. G. Hayden Trav. round Village xii. 186 The blackbirds..proceed to ‘hessle’ the poor owl, as the rustics say; to eject him, that is, with much chatter and scolding, from his comfortable quarters.

1958 P. Larkin Let. 16 Dec. in Sel. Lett. (1992) 296 No word of the record: G.H. is hessling me (pinching the credit for the sleeve photo) & being hessled by the record makers, who want £50 down. They'll be lucky.

1969 Rolling Stone 17 May 11/2 All other [dancing clubs] had collapsed or been hassled to death.

1986 H. Jacobson Redback viii. 74 Hi, this is Karl, don't mean to hassle, but did you get - that sort of thing.

1990 Sky Mag. Apr. 9/1 I'll never become one of those people who hassle you to give up smoking.

2005 N. Laird Utterly Monkey 94 Micks and Philly came along and started hassling us.

1949 A. Ginsberg Let. 15 June (2008) 37 Maybe he sees me and the hipsters hassling against society while cream and honey pour down unnoticed.

1977 Washington Post (Nexis) 30 Sept. a1 Pretty soon they were hassling over how much the check was worth.

2001 G. Earl Good Times & Bad Times 40 They appeared to be like all close brothers; one get into a hassle with some one, that some one had all seven to hassle with.

1928 Amer. Speech 3 383 When a Negro boy says his dog is ‘hasslin'’ (perhaps hesslin') he is probably using a variant of a Kentish dialect word hussling, breathing noisily, wheezing.

1931 J. W. Maury Old Raven's World xiii. 120 If you should say he [sc. the dog] was panting, that wouldn't mean he had his tongue out, too, but when I say he hassles, that means he's panting with his tongue out.

1941 V. Bell Swamp Water 7 Ben felt Trouble [sc. a dog] move in the boat, then heard his breath hasseling in his busy nostrils.

1975 D. McCheyne Newell If Nothin' don't Happen 240 Her [sc. the mother's] breathin' got shorter and shorter... After while she couldn't walk six steps without hasslin' so loud you could hear her in the next room.

2006 M. Gaddis Zip Zap xxxv. 317 Tongues were lolling, and they [sc. dogs] were hassling heavily.