French word

harceler

Pronunciation

IPA/aʁsəle/

Meaning

  • verbharass

Example

Arrête de harceler Marie.

Stop harassing Marie.

Illustration for harceler (harass)

More examples

Les adolescents peuvent harceler un camarade à l'école.

Teenagers can bully a classmate at school.

Core concept

A person keeps pressing the same target with unwanted words or actions until the target has no comfortable way to escape.

Common phrases

  • harceler un enfant

    bully a child

  • harceler par téléphone

    harass by phone

  • harceler quelqu'un

    harass someone

Similar words

embêter: Bother someone lightly, causing minor frustration or discomfort.
ennuyer: Annoy someone through inconvenience, trouble, or unwanted disturbance.
importuner: Pester someone by interfering directly and causing immediate inconvenience.
persécuter: Persecute someone persistently over a long period, causing serious suffering.

Definition in French

Importuner quelqu'un de façon répétée et insistante, par des paroles ou des actes, jusqu'à le gêner ou le contraindre.

Word origin

Harceler comes from Middle French harceler, a verb associated with pursuing and troubling someone repeatedly, and it retains that core idea today.

Usage tips

  • Harceler takes a direct object without a preposition, as in harceler Marie, while the strong accusation often calls for milder verbs such as embeter or ennuyer.

Other meanings

  • pesterverb
  • bullyverb
  • houndverb

Related words

Word lists with this word