For it is a stout calf, ripe for the temples and altar [to be sacrificed], and to be sprinkled with wine; who is now ashamed to draw the dugs of his mother, and who harasseth the oaks with his budding horn.

Some who dwell in wildernesses, / who seek and occupy, by their own wills, homes in dark caverns, these await / the heavenly dwelling-place; he who grudgeth them life, / oft bringeth hateful terror upon them; / sometimes he showeth them horror, sometimes vain glory; / the wily murderer hath power of both, / and harasseth these lonely-dwellers; […]
A modern English translation of a 10th-century Old English text.

To harass good people is no different than speaking ill of them.

The ſoul that dies this death, is like a loving wife matched with a rigorous huſband: ſhe does what ſhe can to pleaſe him, yet he is never pleaſed; but toſſeth, haraſſeth, and beats her, till ſhe break her heart, and death ſets her free: […]

He, who harasseth his household, shall inherit the wind; / And the fool shall be the servant of the wise in heart.

Zeal without judgment is an evil, though it be zeal unto good; / […] / By a shoulder to the wheel downhill harasseth the labouring beast, / And where an obstruction were needed, will harm by an ill judged thrusting-on.

The tradition of this Yoga has now for a long time been broken here, O Arjuna, who harassest thy foes, like the sun, by the heat of thy prowess.

As the waters wear to pieces the stones, / As their overflowings sweep the soil from the land,— / So consumest thou the hope of man; / Thou harassest him continually till he perish; / Thou weariest out his frame, and despatchest him.

'[T]is true, that he neither harasseth his vassals from morn to eve by hard labour and exaction, nor committeth them to the dungeon, when they can no longer work nor pay. But to knights of our calling, Monsieur Robichon, he is as ill disposed as the worst of them:— […]
By an unknown author in imitation of Walter Scott’s Tales of My Landlord (1816–1832).

Harass

Meaning

Verb

Noun

Origin

Synonyms

Related

Rhymes