Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Pestering |
PesteringAdjective1. Causing irritation or annoyance; "tapping an annoying rhythm on his glass with his fork"; "aircraft noise is particularly bothersome near the airport"; "found it galling to have to ask permission"; "an irritating delay"; "nettlesome paperwork"; "a pesky mosquito"; "swarms of pestering gnats"; "a plaguey newfangled safety catch"; "a teasing and persistent thought annoyed him"; "a vexatious child"; "it is vexing to have to admit you are wrong". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "pestering" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1837. (references) |
Synonyms: PesteringSynonyms: annoying (adj), bothersome (adj), galling (adj), irritating (adj), nettlesome (adj), pesky (adj), pestiferous (adj), plaguey (adj), plaguy (adj), teasing (adj), vexatious (adj), vexing (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Pain | Importunate; teasing, pestering, bothering, harassing, worrying, tormenting, carking. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Pestering |
| English words defined with "pestering": annoying ♦ bothersome ♦ galling ♦ irritating ♦ nettlesome, nudge ♦ pesky, Pesterment, pestiferous, plaguey, plaguy ♦ teasing ♦ vexatious, vexing. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "pestering": Let me tell you.. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "pestering": Pester. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Bart, stop pestering Satan! (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) Bri, listenwe're practically living together, so if you only like boys I wouldn't dream of pestering you. (Cabaret; writing credit: Christopher Isherwood; John Van Druten) I love pestering professional men out of hours. (A Day in Summer; writing credit: J.L. Carr; Alan Plater) | |
Lyrics | Now her pestering sister's a festering blister, (Clementine; performing artist: Tom Lehrer) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| "Pestering" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 98.36% of the time. "Pestering" is used about 61 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 98.36% | 60 | 43,597 |
| Noun (singular) | 1.64% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 61 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
agression harassment mobbing pestering sexual stress work | 5 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "pestering"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||
Dutch | pesterijen op het werk (pestering at work). (various references) | ||||||||||
French | vexations subies sur les lieux de travail (pestering at work). (various references) | ||||||||||
German | belästigung (annoyance, harassment, inconvenience, irritation, molestation, molesting, nuisance, persecution, trouble), belästigend (aggravating, annoying, bothering, discommoding, encumberingly, harassing, importuning, incommoding, inconveniencing, irritating, molesting). (various references) | ||||||||||
Hebrew | טרדני (annoying, bothersome, obtrusive). (various references) | ||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 嫌がらせ (harassment). (various references) | ||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | いやがらせ (harassment). (various references) | ||||||||||
Pig Latin | esteringpay sâcâitor (annoying, busy, dragging, fussy, naggy, trying, worrying), gurã (aperture, armful, Buss, chops, entrance, gab, gossip, influx, issue, jaw, kisser, lip, lips, mouth, mouthful, muzzle, orifice, plug, row, scolding, sip, speech, spout, squabble, vent). (various references) | ||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Pestering" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: pasteing, pesturing, Peterina, pettering, postering, prestering. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "pestering" (pronounced pe"stering) |
| 6 | -e" s t er i ng | festering, sequestering. |
| 5 | -s t er i ng | administering, blistering, blustering, bolstering, clustering, filibustering, fostering, mastering, mustering, plastering, registering. |
| 4 | -t er i ng | altering, bantering, bartering, battering, bettering, catering, centering, chartering, chattering, cluttering, countering, doctoring, encountering, entering, factoring, faltering, filtering, flattering, fluttering, frittering, glittering, guttering, hectoring, lettering, littering, loitering, mentoring, metering, mitering, monitoring, motoring, muttering, nattering, neutering, petering, puttering, reentering, scattering, sculpturing, shattering, sheltering, shuttering, slaughtering, smattering, spattering, splintering, sputtering, stuttering, sweltering, teetering, tottering, tutoring, unflattering, uttering, watering. |
| 3 | -er i ng | anchoring, angering, answering, auguring, backfiring, badgering, belaboring, beleaguering, bewildering, bickering, blundering, bordering, bothering, brokering, butchering, capturing, censoring, clamoring, clobbering, coloring, configuring, conjuring, conquering, considering, cornering, covering, cowering, culturing, deciphering, delivering, desiring, devouring, diapering, dickering, differing, discovering, disfavoring, disfiguring, dismembering, dithering, doddering, embroidering, empowering, endangering, endeavoring, fathering, favoring, feathering, featuring, figuring, fingering, flavoring, flickering, floundering, flowering, foundering, fracturing, furthering, garnering, gathering, gerrymandering, gesturing, glimmering, glowering, grandfathering, hammering, hampering, hankering, harboring, hindering, hollering, honoring, hovering, hungering, hunkering, injuring, inquiring, laboring, laundering, lawyering, layering, lecturing, levering, lingering, lowering, lumbering, majoring, maneuvering, manufacturing, massacring, maundering, meandering, measuring, minoring, mirroring, mongering, mothering, murdering, murmuring, neighboring, nonmanufacturing, numbering, nurturing, offering, ordering, outnumbering, pampering, pandering, papering, partnering, peppering, perjuring, philandering, picturing, pilfering, plundering, pondering, posturing, powdering, powering, pressuring, proffering, prospering, puncturing, quivering, recapturing, reconsidering, recovering, rediscovering, rejiggering, remembering, rendering, reoffering, reordering, requiring, restructuring, rewiring, rupturing, savoring, scampering, scouring, severing, shimmering, shivering, shouldering, showering, shuddering, simmering, slithering, slobbering, slumbering, smoldering, smothering, snickering, sobering, soldering, soldiering, souring, spiering, sponsoring, squandering, staggering, structuring, suffering, surrendering, swaggering, tailoring, tampering, tapering, tempering, tendering, thundering, tinkering, torturing, towering, transpiring, triggering, uncovering, unwavering, ushering, venturing, wagering, wallpapering, wandering, warmongering, wavering, weathering, whimpering, whispering, withering, wondering, Wuthering, zippering. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-g-i-n-p-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: gentries, integers, petering, prestige, reesting, speering, steeping, steering. | |
-2 letters: entires, entries, erepsin, gerents, greisen, integer, peering, penster, pestier, pingers, preeing, present, pterins, regents, repents, repines, respite, resting, retines, seeping, serpent, springe, stinger, treeing, trienes. | |
-3 letters: egrets, engirt, enters, entire, esprit, estrin, genets, genies, genips, genres, gentes, gerent, greens, greets, gripes, inerts, ingest, insert. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-g-i-n-p-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: presenting, presetting, pretesting, respecting, sceptering. | |
+2 letters: greasepaint, guttersnipe, impregnates, pageantries, persecuting, preexisting, stringpiece. | |
+3 letters: bespattering, copresenting, distempering, enterprising, exasperating, greasepaints, guttersnipes, overstepping, peregrinates, petrogenesis, predesignate, predestining, predigesting, predigestion, preselecting, prestressing, redepositing, reinspecting, replastering, representing, stereotyping, stringpieces, superheating. | |
+4 letters: disparagement, disrespecting, ethnographies, extemporising, interspersing, letterspacing, perseverating, predesignated, predesignates, predigestions, premarketings, premoistening, presentencing, presweetening, pretensioning, progestogenic, retrospecting, spermatogenic, stenographies, stepparenting, uprightnesses. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)50 65 73 74 65 72 69 6E 67 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).--. . ... - . .-. .. -. --. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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| Amazon.com BOOKS: Search for: "pestering" |
