harass

To harass someone is to cause trouble for a person. It happens again and again, over and over, and sometimes the harassment is illegal.

• Some of the kids at school harass Jose because of the the way he talks and where he comes from.
• Bill says the police are harassing him because of the way he looks.
• The mayor of the city sexually harassed some of his staff members. Eventually, he lost his job.
• When Jill found out who was harassing her, she hired someone to take care of the problem.

The noun form of this word is harassment:

• Our supervisor lost his job because of a sexual harassment incident.
• Harassment of students is not tolerated at our school.
• Most schools in the United States have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to any form of harassment.

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This page was first published on September 8, 2016. It was updated on September 10, 2016.