- 1persecute somebody (for something) to treat someone in a cruel and unfair way, especially because of their race, religion, or political beliefs Throughout history, people have been persecuted for their religious beliefs. persecuted minorities
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- 2persecute somebody to deliberately annoy someone all the time and make their life unpleasant synonym harass Why are the media persecuting him like this?
persecute
verbNAmE//ˈpərsəˌkyut//
[often passive]Verb Forms present simple I / you / we / they persecute he / she / it persecutes
past simple persecuted
-ing form persecuting
NAmE//ˌpərsəˈkyuʃn//
noun [uncountable, countable] the victims of religious persecution They fled to America to escape persecution.See persecute in the Oxford Advanced Learner's DictionaryCheck pronunciation: persecute