harassment

Etymology

From Middle French harassement; synchronically analyzable as harass + -ment.

noun

1. Persistent attacks and criticism causing worry and distress.
2. Deliberate pestering or intimidation.
3. (military) The use of repeated small-scale attacks to wear down an enemy force.
   Throughout this period, and beyond, into the rest of the battle, aircraft of various types and loadouts are crisscrossing the skies in desperate harassment attacks, with the pilots having to play constant games of "guess the carrier" to decide where to land as escort carriers are hit, sunk, disappear in columns of shell splashes, or are forced to evade at angles to the wind that make landing on them impossible. 27 February 2019, Drachinifel, 27:22 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 2022-11-03