molest meaning?

To molest someone is to annoy or attack them. Although the word was first used to mean “pester,” now it is more typically used to refer to criminal abuse.

The verb molest can be used to talk about any kind of persistent harassment, but it most commonly describes an unwanted or aggressive sexual attack. To molest someone in this in way is a very serious criminal assault. The word originally meant simply “to cause trouble or grief,” and it comes from the Latin word molestare, “to disturb, trouble, or annoy.” It wasn’t used to mean “attack sexually” until about 1950.

HOW TO USE MOLEST IN A SENTENCE

• In March 2017, a former Coronado Middle School student reported to school officials that Burgess had molested him on the high school campus five years earlier, when he was 13.
  CORONADO COMMUNITY HAS RALLIED TO DEFEND MANY EMBATTLED COACHES | KAYLA JIMENEZ | JULY 12, 2021 | VOICE OF SAN DIEGO
• The 63-year-old reportedly admitted to investigators that he had molested two underage relatives years earlier, though he was ultimately only charged with one count of criminal sexual contact with a minor.
  MOM RECALLS HORROR OF UNKNOWINGLY SLEEPING BESIDE MURDERED 6-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER | ALLISON QUINN | JUNE 11, 2021 | THE DAILY BEAST
• In 1986, when Palmer was 15, three of those boys accused him of molesting them.
  THE AMERICAN PAROLE SYSTEM IS AN ENDLESS TRAP — AND A MORAL OUTRAGE | JENNIFER MILLER | MAY 24, 2021 | WASHINGTON POST
• It was an example of an effective use of the technology that helped arrest someone suspected of molesting children.
  CHULA VISTA FORUM ON A CONTROVERSIAL POLICE PROGRAM GOT AWKWARD FAST | GUSTAVO SOLIS | APRIL 12, 2021 | VOICE OF SAN DIEGO
• Nigel ruined many a week for me and my Oregonian colleagues with his reporting, including with his 2005 story revealing that Neil Goldschmidt had molested a 14-year-old girl while serving as Portland’s mayor in the 1970s.
  WHY THERE’S SO MUCH INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM ABOUT UTILITY COMPANIES | BY STEPHEN ENGELBERG | MARCH 25, 2021 | PROPUBLICA