nuisance

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One that is inconvenient, annoying, or vexatious; a bother: Having to stand in line was a nuisance. The disruptive child was a nuisance to the class.
2. n. Law A use of property or course of conduct that interferes with the legal rights of others by causing damage, annoyance, or inconvenience.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Injured or painful feeling; annoyance; displeasure; grief.
2. n. An annoying experience; a grievous infliction; trouble; inconvenience.
3. n. The infliction of hurt or injury.
4. n. That which or one who annoys, or gives trouble or injury; a troublesome or annoying thing; that which is noxious, offensive, or irritating; a plague; a bore: applied to persons and things.
5. n. In law, such a use of property or such a course of conduct as, irrespective of actual trespass against others or of malicious or actual criminal intent, transgresses the just restrictions upon use or conduct which the proximity of other persons or property in civilized communities imposes upon what would otherwise be rightful freedom. Thus, the use of steam-power, though on one's own premises and for a lawful purpose, may be a nuisance, if by reason of being in one of several closely built dwellings the vibration and noise cause unreasonable injury to the adjacent property and occupants. Any serious obstruction to a highway or navigable river if not authorized by law is a nuisance; but the temporary use of a reasonable part of a highway for a legitimate purpose, such as the moving of a building or the deposit of building materials going into use, is not necessarily a nuisance. The question of nuisance always is, at what point the selfish use of a right transcends the obligation to respect the welfare of others. A common nuisance, or public nuisance, is one which tends to the annoyance of the public generally, and is therefore to be redressed by forcible abatement or by an action by the state, as distinguished from a private nuisance, or one which causes special injury to one or more individuals and therefore will sustain a private action. Thus, if one obstructs a highway any person may remove the obstruction, but only the public can prosecute the offender, unless a particular individual suffers special injury, as where he is turned from his road and compelled to go another way and suffers thereby a specific pecuniary damage, in which case it is as to him a private nuisance, and he may sue.

Wiktionary

1. n. A minor annoyance or inconvenience.
2. n. A person or thing causing annoyance or inconvenience.
3. n. law Anything harmful or offensive to the community or to a member of it, for which a legal remedy exists.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. That which annoys or gives trouble and vexation; that which is offensive or noxious.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (law) a broad legal concept including anything that disturbs the reasonable use of your property or endangers life and health or is offensive
2. n. a bothersome annoying person