hassle

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English

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WOTD – 20 August 2009

Etymology

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Unknown. Probably from US Southern dialectal hassle (“to pant, breathe noisily”), possibly from haste +‎ -le (frequentative suffix).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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hassle (plural hassles)

  1. Trouble, bother, unwanted annoyances or problems.
    I went through a lot of hassle to be the first to get a ticket.
  2. A fight or argument.
  3. An action which is not worth the difficulty involved.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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hassle (third-person singular simple present hassles, present participle hassling, simple past and past participle hassled)

  1. (transitive) To trouble, to bother, to annoy.
    The unlucky boy was hassled by a gang of troublemakers on his way home.
    • 1969, Beard & Kennedy, Bored of the Rings, page 42:
      "Oh uncool bush! Unloose this passle Of furry cats that you hassle!"
  2. (transitive) To pick a fight or start an argument with.
  3. (military, aviation, slang) To engage in a mock dogfight.
    • 2018, Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff:
      Likewise, “hassling”—mock dogfighting—was strictly forbidden, and so naturally young fighter jocks could hardly wait to go up in, say, a pair of F–100s and start the duel by making a pass at each other at 800 miles an hour, […]
    • 2019, Dan Pedersen, Topgun:
      If you were caught 'hassling,' as we called dogfighting, your career could end. The edict against dogfighting divided our squadron into three factions.

Translations

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Adjective

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hassle (comparative more hassle, superlative most hassle)

  1. (Philippines) hassling; hasslesome

References

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  • “hassle”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

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