different between haunt vs annoy

English

Alternative forms

• hant (Scotland), haint (US, dialectal)

Etymology

From Middle English haunten (“to reside, inhabit, use, employ”), from Old French hanter (“to inhabit, frequent, resort to”), from Old Northern French hanter (“to go back home, frequent”), from Old Norse heimta (“to bring home, fetch”) or/and from Old English h?mettan (“to bring home; house; cohabit with”); both from Proto-Germanic *haimatjan? (“to house, bring home”), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“village, home”), from Proto-Indo-European *k?ym- (“village”).

Cognate with Old English h?mettan (“to provide housing to, bring home”); related to Old English h?m (“home, village”), Old French hantin (“a stay, a place frequented by”) from the same Germanic source. Another descendant from the French is Dutch hanteren, whence German hantieren, Swedish hantera, Danish håndtere. More at home.

Pronunciation

• enPR: hônt, IPA^(key): /h??nt/
• Rhymes: -??nt
• (some accents) enPR: hänt, IPA^(key): /h??nt/
• Rhymes: -??nt
• (some accents for noun definition #2) enPR: h?nt, IPA^(key): /hænt/
• Rhymes: -ænt

Verb

haunt (third-person singular simple present haunts, present participle haunting, simple past and past participle haunted)

1. (transitive) To inhabit, or visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
   • Foul spirits haunt my resting place.

   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, Imitation of Horace, Book I. Ep. VII.

     those cares that haunt the court and town

2. (transitive) To make uneasy, restless.

3. (transitive) To stalk, to follow

4. (intransitive, now rare) To live habitually; to stay, to remain.
5. (transitive, Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.
6. (transitive, Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To practise; to devote oneself to.
   • 1570, Roger Ascham, The School master

     Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.

7. (intransitive) To persist in staying or visiting.

Synonyms

• (to make uneasy): nag
• (to live habitually): live, dwell; See also Thesaurus:reside

Translations

Noun

haunt (plural haunts)

1. A place at which one is regularly found; a habitation or hangout.
   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, "Kitty's Class Day":

     Both Jack and Fletcher had graduated the year before, but still took an interest in their old haunts, and patronized the fellows who were not yet through.

   • 1984, Timothy Loughran and Natalie Angier, "Science: Striking It Rich in Wyoming," Time, 8 Oct.:

     Wyoming has been a favorite haunt of paleontologists for the past century ever since westering pioneers reported that many vertebrate fossils were almost lying on the ground.
2. (dialect) A ghost.
   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, page 93:

     ‘Harnts don't wander much ginerally,’ he said. ‘They hand round thar own buryin'-groun' mainly.’

3. A feeding place for animals.

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Utahn, unhat

English

Etymology

From Middle English annoien, anoien, enoien, a borrowing from Anglo-Norman anuier, Old French enuier (“to molest, harm, tire”), from Late Latin inodi? (“cause aversion, make hateful”, verb), from the phrase in odi? (“hated”), from Latin odium (“hatred”). Doublet of ennui. Displaced native Middle English grillen (“to annoy, irritate”), from Old English grillan (see grill).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n??/
• Rhymes: -??

Verb

annoy (third-person singular simple present annoys, present participle annoying, simple past and past participle annoyed)

1. (transitive) To disturb or irritate, especially by continued or repeated acts; to bother with unpleasant deeds.
   • 1691, Matthew Prior, Pastoral to Dr. Turner, Bishop of Ely

     Say, what can more our tortured souls annoy / Than to behold, admire, and lose our joy?

2. (intransitive) To do something to upset or anger someone; to be troublesome.
3. (transitive) To molest; to harm; to injure.

   to annoy an army by impeding its march, or by a cannonade

   • tapers put into lanterns or sconces of several-coloured, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them

Synonyms

• (to disturb or irritate) bother, bug, hassle, irritate, pester, nag, irk
• See also Thesaurus:annoy

Antonyms

• please
• See also Thesaurus:annoy

Related terms

Translations

Noun

annoy (plural annoys)

1. (now rare, literary) A feeling of discomfort or vexation caused by what one dislikes.
   • 1532 (first printing), Geoffrey Chaucer, The Romaunt of the Rose:

     I merveyle me wonder faste / How ony man may lyve or laste / In such peyne and such brennyng, / [...] In such annoy contynuely.

   • c. 1610, John Fletcher, “Sleep”:

     We that suffer long annoy / Are contented with a thought / Through an idle fancy wrought: / O let my joys have some abiding!
2. (now rare, literary) That which causes such a feeling.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, King Rchard III, IV.2:

     Sleepe in Peace, and wake in Ioy, / Good Angels guard thee from the Boares annoy [...].

   • 1872, Robert Browning, "Fifine at the Fair, V:

     The home far and away, the distance where lives joy, / The cure, at once and ever, of world and world's annoy [...].

Synonyms

• (both senses) annoyance

Translations

References

• annoy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• annoy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• Yonan, anyon, noyan, yanno