nuisance
[noo-suh ns, nyoo-]
- an obnoxious or annoying person, thing, condition, practice, etc.: a monthly meeting that was more nuisance than pleasure.
- Law. something offensive or annoying to individuals or to the community, especially in violation of their legal rights.
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Origin of nuisance
1375–1425; late Middle English nu(i)sa(u)nce < Anglo-French, equivalent to nuis(er) to harm (≪ Latin nocēre) + -ance -ance
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
gadflylouseirritationoffenseborecreepnudgenagexasperationterrorpillheadacheblisterpaininflictioninconveniencedragplaguebumtroubleExamples from the Web for nuisance
Contemporary Examples
If my legs made me a nuisance, I vowed to become less of one.
Other questions: Should nuisance bears be euthanized if they are serial offenders?
Last year, there were a record 6,726, covering “nuisance” behavior, property damage, injuries to bears, and injuries to humans.
But the Roma remained on the streets of French cities, perceived as a nuisance in many places, a threat in some.
Franz Joseph lit the Hofburg Palace with kerosene lamps and viewed the telephone as a nuisance.
Historical Examples
They want to loaf about, and drink, and be a nuisance to everybody, like some of the rich ones.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
This fact is simply that a child is a nuisance to a grown-up person.
A Treatise on Parents and ChildrenGeorge Bernard Shaw
A nuisance on Balera, which is the equivalent of a Terran swamp.
Join Our Gang?Sterling E. Lanier
Aunty May said it was funny, too, but Aunty Edith said it was a nuisance.
W. A. G.'s TaleMargaret Turnbull
All the politicians are a nuisance, a curse, a plague worse than was any in Egypt.
Diary from November 12, 1862, to October 18, 1863Adam Gurowski
nuisance
- a person or thing that causes annoyance or bother
- (as modifier)nuisance calls
- law something unauthorized that is obnoxious or injurious to the community at large (public nuisance) or to an individual, esp in relation to his ownership or occupation of property (private nuisance)
- nuisance value the usefulness of a person's or thing's capacity to cause difficulties or irritation
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Word Origin
C15: via Old French from nuire to injure, from Latin nocēre
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for nuisance
n.
c.1400, "injury, hurt, harm," from Anglo-French nusaunce, Old French nuisance "harm, wrong, damage," from past participle stem of nuire "to harm," from Latin nocere "to hurt" (see noxious). Sense has softened over time, to "anything obnoxious to a community" (bad smells, pests, eyesores), 1660s, then "source of annoyance, something personally disagreeable" (1831). Applied to persons from 1690s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with nuisance
nuisance
see make a nuisance of oneself.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.