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
- v. To intimidate or dominate in a blustering way.
- v. 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
- Latin Hectōr, Hektor, from Greek Hektōr.
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
squawk, gab, chatter, chitchat, blab, prattle, blather, discuss, hector, plead, cajole, harangue and 189 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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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...

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