Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A bully.
- v. To intimidate or dominate in a blustering way.
- v. To behave like a bully; swagger.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A bully; a blustering, turbulent, noisy fellow.
- n. One who teases or vexes.
- To treat with insolence; threaten; bully.
- To find fault with; fret at; chide; scold.
- Synonyms To fret, worry, annoy, beset, provoke, irritate.
- To play the bully; bluster; be turbulent or insolent.
Wiktionary
- n. A bully; a blustering, turbulent, noisy fellow.
- v. transitive To intimidate or dominate in a blustering way.
- v. intransitive To behave like a bully; swagger.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A bully; a blustering, turbulent, insolent, fellow; one who vexes or provokes.
- v. To treat with insolence; to threaten; to bully; hence, to torment by words; to tease; to taunt; to worry or irritate by bullying.
- v. To play the bully; to bluster; to be turbulent or insolent.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (Greek mythology) a mythical Trojan who was killed by Achilles during the Trojan War
- v. be bossy towards
Etymologies
- From Hector, character in the Iliad. (Wiktionary)
- Latin Hectōr, Hektor, from Greek Hektōr. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But in a speech to the Fabian Society in London, Mr Johnson made a veiled attack on the Conservative leader by saying the Government does not have a licence to 'hector' and 'lecture' people on how they live their life.”
“In pt ii. of the _Niebelungen Lied_, he sees his sons and liegemen struck down without making the least effort to save them, and is as unlike the Attila of history as a "hector" is to the noble Trojan "the protector of mankind.”
“David Cameron has said he will not "hector" the Chinese over human rights despite pressure to condemn the jailing of China's Nobel Peace Prize winner.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Mr Cameron has said it would be wrong for him to "hector" Chinese politicians and business leaders over human rights, ducking questions of whether he will take up the matter at the highest levels.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“David Cameron has said it would be wrong for him to "hector" Chinese politicians and business leaders over human rights”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Hell, we could just pick a few letters in “financial reform” and call it FNARF. hector says:”
“Is there some law of conservation of puritanism in American culture, that we always have to find a new class of sinners to officially hector?”
“The only thing different about Obama from Hillary is that he's African-American and that has opened the racial floodgates to hector, harass, and demean him.”
The Huffington Post: Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Knock Off the 'Run Hillary Run' Chatter
“Let's all go down and hector these people until they understand what a mistake it was to come to Portland to convene and spend their money.”
“But the G-7 for years tried to hector the Chinese into changing its policy concerning the yuan with little discernible effect.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hector’.
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•Open List: Songboys
Inspired by gangerh's extremely addictive list songbirds, this is the same type list, but for male names. Same rules apply:
Names of boys in song titles. Not in the lyrics, just in the title...jack, jesse, jakey, john, arthur, nick, donald, bill, billy, gideon, riley, charlie and 95 more...
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Talk Talk
Words for Talking
( open list, randomness )squawk, gab, chatter, chitchat, blab, prattle, blather, discuss, hector, plead, cajole, harangue and 200 more...
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phrontistery - h
from phrontistery.info
habanera, habile, habiliment, hackle, hackney, hadal, hame, hank, hansom, hapax, hark, harl and 568 more...
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Nycanthro's list
I like words. Have kept running lists for years now. If I'd been born wealthy I'd be a linguist. Or maybe a semi-reclusive yet world-weary linguist-humanitarian-hiphop-icon known for his humility a...
oaktag, backstory, homonormative, gobshite, imagineer, comeuppance, tomfoolery, ersatz, widdershins, gigajoule, oneupmanship, conniption and 40 more...
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DAY6_01/09/2013
derived from person's name
galvanize, byzantine, quisling, malapropism, panglossian, maudlin, quixotic, kafkaesque, chauvinist, pyrrhic, pollyannaish, hector and 6 more...
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Whatevah
Stuff that's not categorized yet, because I don't have a category for it, or (more likely) because I'm lazy.
importunate, hector, extirpate, cicatrice, dysgraphia, tarradiddle, tartuffe, tinctorial, swallow-pipe, stownlins, posse comitatus, insightful and 1 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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wakcy's Words
apocalypse, interlude, drome, absolution, atrocity, ruse, pristine, mason, reparable, deteriorate, pyramid, hipster and 283 more...
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Northern Territory
The Northern Territory of Australia. Suggestions welcome.
win-a-croc, angurugu, intervention, mala, qantas, ochre, nitmiluk, the ghan, wet season, dry season, nyinyikay, dragonfly and 94 more...
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MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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words that make me happy inside
amanuensis, inamorata, armigerous, yurt, fugacious, ephemeral, gambit, defenestration, orotund, toper, teuchter, apostasy and 90 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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My Revised GRE Preparation List
Words from the new GRE : This list consists mostly of words from the book Magoosh-GRE-vocab-ebook, which is one of the best vocab materials available, especially if you have started preparing one ...
alacrity, prosaic, veracity, paucity, contrite, trite, maintain, laconic, pugnacious, disparate, egregious, innocuous and 533 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hector.
seanahan Used recently by George Bush, CBS news Mar 29, 2008
chained_bear "Hector the Hero" is an old and very nice fiddle tune. Feb 9, 2008
dhuber Also, a noun... "a bully"
or a verb... "to bully" Nov 16, 2007