Antonyms for persecute
ˈpɜr sɪˌkyutper·se·cute

WiktionaryRate these synonyms:2.1 / 8 votes

1. persecuteverb

   Synonyms:
   distress, oppress, harass, annoy, worry

2. persecuteverb

   To pursue in a manner to injure, grieve, or afflict; to beset with cruelty or malignity; to harass; especially, to afflict, harass, punish, or put to death for one's race, sexual identity, adherence to a particular religious creed, or mode of worship.

   Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. – Matt. 5:44.

   Synonyms:
   annoy, distress, harass, oppress, worry

3. persecuteverb

   To harass with importunity; to pursue with persistent solicitations; to annoy.

   Synonyms:
   distress, oppress, harass, worry, annoy

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:3.0 / 2 votes

1. persecute

   Abuse covers all unreasonable or improper use or treatment by word or act. A tenant does not abuse rented property by "reasonable wear," though that may damage the property and injure its sale; he may abuse it by needless defacement or neglect. It is possible to abuse a man without harming him, as when the criminal vituperates the judge; or to harm a man without abusing him, as when the witness tells the truth about the criminal. Defame, malign, rail at, revile, slander, vilify, and vituperate are used always in a bad sense. One may be justly reproached. To impose on or to victimize one is to injure him by abusing his confidence. To persecute one is to ill-treat him for opinion's sake, commonly for religious belief; to oppress is generally for political or pecuniary motives. "Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy," Deut. xxiv, 14. Misemploy, misuse, and pervert are commonly applied to objects rather than to persons. A dissolute youth misemploys his time, misuses his money and opportunities, harms his associates, perverts his talents, wrongs his parents, ruins himself, abuses every good gift of God.

   Antonyms:
   applaud, benefit, care for, cherish, conserve, consider, eulogize, extol, favor, laud, panegyrize, praise, protect, regard, respect, shield, sustain, tend, uphold, vindicate

   Synonyms:
   abuse, aggrieve, damage, defame, defile, disparage, harm, ill-treat, ill-use, impose on, impose upon, injure, malign, maltreat, misemploy, misuse, molest, oppress, pervert, prostitute, rail at, ravish, reproach, revile, ruin, slander, victimize, vilify, violate, vituperate, wrong

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:5.0 / 1 vote

1. persecute

   Antonyms:
   encourage, inspirit, abet, support

   Synonyms:
   harass, molest, annoy, worry, vex

Princeton's WordNetRate these antonyms:4.0 / 3 votes

1. persecute, oppressverb

   cause to suffer

   "Jews were persecuted in the former Soviet Union"

   Synonyms:
   oppress, suppress, crush

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. persecuteverb

   Synonyms:
   harass, oppress, tyrannize, torment, dragoon, importune, annoy, hector, badger

How to use persecute in a sentence?

1. Fatou Bensouda:

   We believe he ordered his troops to attack, pillage, rape, persecute and kill civilians belonging to Lendu, Ngiti and other ethnic groups, we believe he recruited hundreds of children into the UPC (Union of Congolese Patriots) and used them to kill and to die in the fighting; and girl soldiers to be routinely raped.

2. Edmund Burke:

   In doing good, we are generally cold, and languid, and sluggish; and of all things afraid of being too much in the right. But the works of malice and injustice are quite in another style. They are finished with a bold, masterly hand; touched as they are with the spirit of those vehement passions that call forth all our energies, whenever we oppress and persecute.

3. Benjamin Weingarten:

   That House Democrats' final act in the majority was to strike one last blow in their relentless war against Donald Trump — in the process running roughshod over the very norms and institutions they so claim to cherish — marks a fitting end to their progressive rule, and tells you all you need to know about their priorities and posture as they lose their grip on power, this was of a piece with the Soviet show trial-style January 6th Committee that recently reached its unceremonious conclusion, the primary purpose of which was never to unearth truth or hold people to account, but to politically persecute political foes declared guilty at the outset while the Biden Justice Department does the Democrats' legal bidding in criminalizing its political opponents.

4. Prime Minister David Cameron:

   I want British Muslims to know we will back them to stand against those who spread hate and to counter the narrative which says Muslims do not feel British, i want police to take more action against those who persecute others simply because of their religion.

5. Ralph Waldo Emerson:

   Universities are of course hostile to geniuses, which, seeing and using ways of their own, discredit the routine as churches and monasteries persecute youthful saints.

How to pronounce persecute?

How to say persecute in sign language?

Words popularity by usage frequency