Synonyms 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.

   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

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

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

1. persecute

   Synonyms:
   harass, molest, annoy, worry, vex

   Antonyms:
   encourage, inspirit, abet, support

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:4.0 / 3 votes

1. persecute, oppressverb

   cause to suffer

   "Jews were persecuted in the former Soviet Union"

   Synonyms:
   oppress, suppress, crush

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:4.0 / 1 vote

1. persecuteverb

   Synonyms:
   oppress, harass, afflict, molest, distress, worry, hunt down, run down, pursue malignantly, drive from pillar to post

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

1. persecuteverb

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

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "persecute":

   haunt, prosecute, pursue

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How to use persecute in a sentence?

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Sigmund Freud:

   It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime, and cruelty too.

4. Ibrahim Hooper:

   This is way beyond the pale, this is basically a call to persecute a religious minority based on nothing other than their faith.

5. The Talmud:

   Whosoever does not persecute them that persecute him; whosoever takes an offence in silence; he who does good because of love; he who is cheerful under his sufferings -- these are the friends of God, and of them the Scripture says: "They shall shine forth like the sun at noontide."