tease suggests an attempt to break down one's resistance or rouse to wrath.
children teased the dog
Examples of pester in a Sentence
Leave me alone! Stop pestering me!
one resident pestered the condo board about every little thing
Recent Examples on the WebAgainst the bigger and deeper Red Storm, the Foresters pestered on defense and made enough big shots to lead for much of the first three quarters.—Glenn Graham, Baltimore Sun, 26 Jan. 2024 McCarthy continued to pester the 22-year-old with questions about her music, before Eilish put a hand over her mouth.—Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 25 Feb. 2024 Also, Lulu recently shared a video of her driver pestering her about his fate.—Jessica Wang, EW.com, 23 Feb. 2024 When Izzo put Carr on him, the freshman’s quickness started to pester Rodgers.—Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press, 12 Jan. 2024 Payne was unsurprisingly uncooperative, and pestering the mayor's son for information to use against his best friend predictably landed Price a meeting with, well, the mayor.—Alex Ross, Peoplemag, 23 Feb. 2024 Teasing can look like a silly game, but playfully pestering others may carry evolutionary perks too.—Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 14 Feb. 2024 The turnover bug continues to pester Maryland Only three games and 10 days removed from committing a season-worst 17 turnovers in a 65-62 setback at Minnesota, the Terps fell back into a familiar rut.—Edward Lee, Baltimore Sun, 18 Jan. 2024 This could be good news, increasing consumer choice and possibly enabling different business models — how about mobile games that aren’t constantly pestering gamers for in-app purchases?—Anil Dash, Rolling Stone, 30 Dec. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pester.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
modification of Middle French empestrer to hobble, embarrass, from Vulgar Latin *impastoriare, from Latin in- + Late Latin pastoria tether — more at pastern
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