PERSECUTE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does persecute mean? 

• PERSECUTE (verb)
  The verb PERSECUTE has 1 sense:

1. cause to suffer

  Familiarity information: PERSECUTE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PERSECUTE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they persecute    ... he / she / it persecutes   
Past simple: persecuted   
Past participle: persecuted   
-ing form: persecuting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to suffer

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

oppress; persecute

Context example:

Some religious groups are persecuted in some countries

Hypernyms (to "persecute" is one way to...):

bedevil; crucify; dun; frustrate; rag; torment (treat cruelly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "persecute"):

purge (oust politically)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

persecution (the act of persecuting (especially on the basis of race or religion))

persecutor (someone who torments)

 Context examples 

“And how was it,” asked my uncle, angrily, “that you have allowed an innocent man to be persecuted all these years, when a word from you might have saved him?”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Persecuted and tortured as I am and have been, can death be any evil to me?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

We did; and, Tedo, you know, I helped you in prosecuting (or persecuting) your tutor, whey-faced Mr. Vining—the parson in the pip, as we used to call him.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You persecute the prophets! Galileo! Darwin, and I— (Prolonged cheering and complete interruption.)

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The guard treated him unfairly, lied about him to the warden, lost his credits, persecuted him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

At which times they would approach as near as they durst, and imitate my actions after the manner of monkeys, but ever with great signs of hatred; as a tame jackdaw with cap and stockings is always persecuted by the wild ones, when he happens to be got among them.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

This made Lip-lip the leader, and was apparently an honour! but in reality it took away from him all honour, and instead of being bully and master of the pack, he now found himself hated and persecuted by the pack.

(White Fang, by Jack London)