pester

English

Etymology

In the senses of “overcrowd (a place)” and “impede (a person)”: from Middle French and Old French empestrer (“encumber”), influenced by English pest. The modern sense is an extension of the sense “infest”. Comparable to English construction pest + -er (used to form frequentative verbs).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛstə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛstɚ/, [ˈpʰɛstɚ]
• Rhymes: -ɛstə(ɹ)

Verb

pester (third-person singular simple present pesters, present participle pestering, simple past and past participle pestered)

1. (transitive) To bother, harass, or annoy persistently.

   He pestered me with questions.

   She pestered him to help her.

2. (obsolete, transitive and intransitive) To crowd together thickly.
   • 1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, pages 5–6:

     That which eſpecialleſt nouriſht the moſt prime pleaſure in me, was after a ſtorme when they were driuen inſwarmes, and lay close peſtred together as thicke as they could packe; the next day following, if it were faire, they would cloud the whole skie with canuas, by ſpreading their drabled ſailes in the full clue abroad a drying, and make a brauer ſhew with them, then ſo many banners and ſtreamers diſplayed againſt the Sunne on a mountaine top.

Synonyms

• badger
• bug
• hound

Derived terms

• bepester
• pester power
• pesterer
• pestery

Related terms

• pest

Translations

to annoy persistently

• Bulgarian: досаждам (bg) (dosaždam), тормозя (bg) (tormozja)
• Czech: obtěžovat (cs) impf, otravovat (cs) impf, dotírat impf
• Dutch: pesten (nl)
• Finnish: kiusata (fi)
• Galician: abouxar (gl)
• German: belästigen (de), behelligen (de)
• Hindi: खून पीना (khūn pīnā, literally “to drink [someone's] blood”)
• Ingrian: tarttua
• Japanese: 悩ます (ja) (なやます, nayamasu), せがむ (segamu)
• Macedonian: до́саѓа (dósaǵa)
• Maori: pāengaenga, whakapōrearea, whakakūrakuraku, whakatīwheta
• Portuguese: atazanar (pt)
• Russian: досажда́ть (ru) impf (dosaždátʹ)
• Spanish: atosigar (es), molestar (es), dar la tabarra, jorobar (es)
• Swedish: plåga (sv), ofreda (sv)
• Tagalog: galitin

Noun

pester (plural pesters)

1. A bother or nuisance.
   • 2017, Samuel J. Archer, Will There Be Another Lincoln, Nixon, Johnson or Kennedy?, page 15:

     By now I presumed I had become a real pester.

Anagrams

• Peters, Pretes, pestre, peters, pre-set, preset, serpet

Breton

Noun

pester

1. plural of post

Dutch

Etymology

From pesten +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛs.tər/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pes‧ter

Noun

pester m (plural pesters, diminutive pestertje n)

1. A bully (person who bullies or pesters somebody).

Synonyms

• pestkop

Related terms

• pesten, pesterij

Anagrams

• perste, preest, preste, streep

French

Etymology

From peste +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛs.te/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

pester

1. to rant, curse, fulminate

Conjugation

Conjugation of pester (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	pester
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	pestant /pɛs.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		pesté /pɛs.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	peste /pɛst/	pestes /pɛst/	peste /pɛst/	pestons /pɛs.tɔ̃/	pestez /pɛs.te/	pestent /pɛst/
	imperfect	pestais /pɛs.tɛ/	pestais /pɛs.tɛ/	pestait /pɛs.tɛ/	pestions /pɛs.tjɔ̃/	pestiez /pɛs.tje/	pestaient /pɛs.tɛ/
	past historic2	pestai /pɛs.te/	pestas /pɛs.ta/	pesta /pɛs.ta/	pestâmes /pɛs.tam/	pestâtes /pɛs.tat/	pestèrent /pɛs.tɛʁ/
	future	pesterai /pɛs.tə.ʁe/	pesteras /pɛs.tə.ʁa/	pestera /pɛs.tə.ʁa/	pesterons /pɛs.tə.ʁɔ̃/	pesterez /pɛs.tə.ʁe/	pesteront /pɛs.tə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	pesterais /pɛs.tə.ʁɛ/	pesterais /pɛs.tə.ʁɛ/	pesterait /pɛs.tə.ʁɛ/	pesterions /pɛs.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	pesteriez /pɛs.tə.ʁje/	pesteraient /pɛs.tə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	peste /pɛst/	pestes /pɛst/	peste /pɛst/	pestions /pɛs.tjɔ̃/	pestiez /pɛs.tje/	pestent /pɛst/
	imperfect2	pestasse /pɛs.tas/	pestasses /pɛs.tas/	pestât /pɛs.ta/	pestassions /pɛs.ta.sjɔ̃/	pestassiez /pɛs.ta.sje/	pestassent /pɛs.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	peste /pɛst/	—	pestons /pɛs.tɔ̃/	pestez /pɛs.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “pester”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• pertes, prêtes, prêtés

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

pester m or f

1. indefinite plural of pest

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• pestar

Noun

pester m or f

1. indefinite feminine plural of pest

Slovene

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *pьstrъ (“variegated”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pèːstər/

Adjective

pẹ́stər (comparative pẹ́strejši, superlative nȁjpẹ́strejši)

1. colourful, variegated

Inflection

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Hard
	masculine	feminine	neuter
nom. sing.	péster	péstra	péstro
singular
	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	péster ind péstri def	péstra	péstro
genitive	péstrega	péstre	péstrega
dative	péstremu	péstri	péstremu
accusative	nominativeinan or genitiveanim	péstro	péstro
locative	péstrem	péstri	péstrem
instrumental	péstrim	péstro	péstrim
dual
	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	péstra	péstri	péstri
genitive	péstrih	péstrih	péstrih
dative	péstrima	péstrima	péstrima
accusative	péstra	péstri	péstri
locative	péstrih	péstrih	péstrih
instrumental	péstrima	péstrima	péstrima
plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	péstri	péstre	péstra
genitive	péstrih	péstrih	péstrih
dative	péstrim	péstrim	péstrim
accusative	péstre	péstre	péstra
locative	péstrih	péstrih	péstrih
instrumental	péstrimi	péstrimi	péstrimi

Further reading

• “pester”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran