NUISANCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does nuisance mean? 

• NUISANCE (noun)
  The noun NUISANCE has 2 senses:

1. (law) a broad legal concept including anything that disturbs the reasonable use of your property or endangers life and health or is offensive

2. a bothersome annoying person

  Familiarity information: NUISANCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NUISANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(law) a broad legal concept including anything that disturbs the reasonable use of your property or endangers life and health or is offensive

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("nuisance" is a kind of...):

annoyance; bother; botheration; infliction; pain; pain in the ass; pain in the neck (something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "nuisance"):

abatable nuisance (a nuisance that can remedied (suppressed or extinguished or rendered harmless))

attractive nuisance (anything on your premises that might attract children into danger or harm)

mixed nuisance (a nuisance that is both a public nuisance and a private nuisance at the same time)

private nuisance (a nuisance that interferes with your interest in and private use and enjoyment of your land)

common nuisance; public nuisance (a nuisance that unreasonably interferes with a right that is common to the general public)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A bothersome annoying person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

nuisance; pain; pain in the neck

Context example:

that kid is a terrible pain

Hypernyms ("nuisance" is a kind of...):

disagreeable person; unpleasant person (a person who is not pleasant or agreeable)

 Context examples 

I have just one word to say of the whole tribe; they are a nuisance.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

They are seen only as a nuisance, swept hastily off, and driven as much as possible from the sight.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Topsails would be a nuisance and a danger for a crew of two, so I heaved the topmasts on deck and lashed them fast.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

‘If it really annoys you, Hilton, we might go and travel, you and I, and so avoid this nuisance.’

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

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, has evolved from a controllable nuisance into a serious public health concern.

(Antibiotic Combinations May Combat MRSA Infections, NIH)

His spiders are now becoming as great a nuisance as his flies, and to-day I told him that he must get rid of them.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was no part of my education; and the only dose I ever had, being administered by not the first favourite in the world, has made me consider improvements in hand as the greatest of nuisances.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Kimberley Whitehead said: Our findings have prompted us to wonder whether hiccups in adults, which appear to be mainly a nuisance, may in fact by a vestigial reflex, left over from infancy when it had an important function.

(Baby Hiccups Key to Brain Development, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Any chemical substance, biological agent or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest, including insects, plant pathogens, weeds, mollusks, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms) and microbes that compete with humans for food, destroy property, spread or are a vector for disease or are a nuisance.

(Pesticide, NCI Thesaurus)

In 2011, Sargassum populations started to explode in places it hadn’t been before, like the central Atlantic Ocean, and then it arrived in gargantuan gobs that suffocated shorelines and introduced a new nuisance for local environments and economies.

(Satellites Find Biggest Seaweed Bloom in the World, NASA)