Molest

//məˈlɛst// verb

verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To sexually assault or sexually harass.

    "At last he simmered down, choked out his explanations. And the news was indeed enormous. That afternoon, just three hours earlier, his younger sister, Gina, had been molested, debauched, as she crossed a children's playground in the park."

  2. 2
    annoy continually or chronically wordnet
  3. 3
    To annoy, trouble, or afflict. dated

    "They have molested the church with needless opposition."

  4. 4
    harass or assault sexually; make indecent advances to wordnet
  5. 5
    To disturb or tamper with. dated

Synonyms

All synonyms
abuseannoybadgerbotherchafedisturb

Antonyms

All antonyms
please

Example

More examples

"Tom attempted to molest the eight-year-old child."

Etymology

From Middle English molesten, from Old French molester, from Latin molestō (“to trouble, annoy, molest”), from molestus (“troublesome”), from moles (“a burden, difficulty, labor, trouble”); see mole.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.