Library / English Dictionary

NUISANCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

(law) a broad legal concept including anything that disturbs the reasonable use of your property or endangers life and health or is offensive

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("nuisance" is a kind of...):

annoyance; bother; botheration; infliction; pain; pain in the ass; pain in the neck (something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "nuisance"):

abatable nuisance (a nuisance that can remedied (suppressed or extinguished or rendered harmless))

attractive nuisance (anything on your premises that might attract children into danger or harm)

mixed nuisance (a nuisance that is both a public nuisance and a private nuisance at the same time)

private nuisance (a nuisance that interferes with your interest in and private use and enjoyment of your land)

common nuisance; public nuisance (a nuisance that unreasonably interferes with a right that is common to the general public)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A bothersome annoying person

Example:

that kid is a terrible pain

Synonyms:

nuisance; pain; pain in the neck

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("nuisance" is a kind of...):

disagreeable person; unpleasant person (a person who is not pleasant or agreeable)

Credits

 Context examples: 

How could I possibly prefer the spoilt pet of a wealthy family, who would hate her governess as a nuisance, to a lonely little orphan, who leans towards her as a friend?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

His incessant talking and shouting and bellowing of orders had been too much for Wolf Larsen, who had accordingly foisted the nuisance upon his hunters.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

That will be done by the removal of the farmyard; for, independent of that terrible nuisance, I never saw a house of the kind which had in itself so much the air of a gentleman's residence, so much the look of a something above a mere parsonage-house—above the expenditure of a few hundreds a year.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Miss Gryce snored at last; she was a heavy Welshwoman, and till now her habitual nasal strains had never been regarded by me in any other light than as a nuisance; to-night I hailed the first deep notes with satisfaction; I was debarrassed of interruption; my half-effaced thought instantly revived.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)