persecute
- 01 C2 Proficiency
to bother someone constantly with questions or requests.
to harass or beset someone with persistent solicitations or annoying requests.
Simple“The famous actor was persecuted by photographers everywhere he went.”
In context“The junior clerk felt persecuted by his manager's constant, nitpicking demands for minor revisions to every document.”
persecute vs prosecute — Persecute is to mistreat someone for their beliefs; prosecute is to take someone to court for a crime.
“Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced in July that Myanmar’s military-backed government had agreed to take back 5,000 members of the persecuted Rohingya minority amid rising tensions with local communities in Malaysia.”
“Thousands remain in need of protection, some of them persecuted specifically because of their work supporting and protecting Australians .”
Borrowed from Middle French persécuter, from Ecclesiastical Latin persecutor, from Latin persequor, persecutus (“follow up, pursue”), from per- (“through”) + sequor (“follow”) (English sequel). Compare prosecute. Cf. also pursue.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.