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Menace vs Harass - What's the difference?

menace | harass |

As verbs the difference between menace and harass

is that menace is while harass is to fatigue or to tire with repeated and exhausting efforts.

As a noun harass is

(obsolete) devastation; waste.

menace

English

Etymology 1

First attested ante 1300: from the (etyl) manace, menace, from the (etyl) .

Noun

(menaces)
  • a perceived threat or danger
  • * Dryden
    • the dark menace of the distant war
  • the act of threatening
  • an annoying and bothersome person

    • References

    * “ menace, n.'']” listed in the '' [2nd Ed.; 1989

    Etymology 2

    First attested in 1303: from the (etyl) menacer, manecier, manechier and the (etyl) manasser, from the assumed , whence .

    Verb

    (transitive'' or ''intransitive )
  • To make threats against (someone); to intimidate.
    • to menace a country with war
  • * Shakespeare
    • My master did menace me with death.
  • To threaten (an evil to be inflicted).
  • * Shakespeare
    • By oath he menaced / Revenge upon the cardinal.
  • To endanger (someone or something); to imperil or jeopardize.

    • References

    * “ menace, v.'']” listed in the ''Oxford English Dictionary [2nd Ed.; 1989 ----

    harass

    English

    Verb

    (es)
  • To fatigue or to tire with repeated and exhausting efforts.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or
  • To annoy endlessly or systematically; to molest.
  • * 1877 , (Anna Sewell), (Black Beauty) Chapter 23[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Black_Beauty/23]
    • In my old home, I always knew that John and my master were my friends; but here, although in many ways I was well treated, I had no friend. York might have known, and very likely did know, how that rein harassed me; but I suppose he took it as a matter of course that could not be helped; at any rate nothing was done to relieve me.
  • To put excessive burdens upon; to subject to anxieties.
    • in the early 1940s.

    Synonyms

    * hassle * harry * chivy or chivvy * chevy or chevvy * beset * plague * molest * provoke

    Derived terms

    * harasser * harassment

    External links

    * *

    Noun

  • (obsolete) devastation; waste
    • (Milton)
  • (obsolete) worry; harassment
    • (Byron)