PESTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does pester mean? 

• PESTER (verb)
  The verb PESTER has 1 sense:

1. annoy persistently

  Familiarity information: PESTER used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PESTER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they pester    ... he / she / it pesters   
Past simple: pestered   
Past participle: pestered   
-ing form: pestering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Annoy persistently

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

badger; beleaguer; bug; pester; tease

Context example:

The children teased the boy because of his stammer

Hypernyms (to "pester" is one way to...):

bedevil; crucify; dun; frustrate; rag; torment (treat cruelly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They pester him to write the letter

Derivation:

pesterer (a persistently annoying person)

 Context examples 

If you come pestering me any more with your silly talk I’ll set the dog at you.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On-the-go purchases are often impulsive and can be the result of children pestering their parents.

(Removing sweets and crisps from supermarket checkouts linked to dramatic fall in unhealthy snack purchases, University of Cambridge)

Once, he declined something from the servant who interrupted and pestered at his shoulder, and he said, shortly and emphatically, "Pew!"

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

These people always clear out when they hear of trouble, for they do not wish to be pestered by the police.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The occasion was this: the kingdom is much pestered with flies in summer; and these odious insects, each of them as big as a Dunstable lark, hardly gave me any rest while I sat at dinner, with their continual humming and buzzing about mine ears.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

You’d be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For I have already told the reader how much I was pestered by these odious animals, upon my first arrival; and I afterwards failed very narrowly, three or four times, of falling into their clutches, when I happened to stray at any distance without my hanger.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)