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Bedevil vs Haunt - What's the difference?

bedevil | haunt |

As verbs the difference between bedevil and haunt

is that bedevil is to harass or cause trouble for; to plague while haunt is to inhabit, or visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).

As a noun haunt is

a place at which one is regularly found; a hangout.

bedevil

English

Verb

  • To harass or cause trouble for; to plague.
  • Guerrilla attacks continued to bedevil the larger army's supply routes.
  • To perplex or bewilder.
  • Usage notes

    * The spellings bedeviling'' and ''bedeviled'' are preferred in the US, while ''bedevilling'' and ''bedevilled are preferred in the UK. However, the choice of spellings is not universal.

    haunt

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l) (Scotland)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To inhabit, or visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
  • A couple of ghosts haunt the old, burnt-down house.
  • * Shakespeare
  • You wrong me, sir, thus still to haunt my house.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • those cares that haunt the court and town
  • * Fairfax
  • Foul spirits haunt my resting place.
  • To make uneasy, restless.
  • The memory of his past failures haunted him.
  • To stalk, to follow
  • The policeman haunted him, following him everywhere.
  • To live habitually; to stay, to remain.
  • * 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , John XI:
  • Jesus therfore walked no more openly amonge the iewes: butt went his waye thence vnto a countre ny to a wildernes into a cite called effraym, and there haunted with his disciples.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.x:
  • yonder in that wastefull wildernesse / Huge monsters haunt , and many dangers dwell
  • To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.
  • * Wyclif
  • Haunt thyself to pity.
  • To practise; to devote oneself to.
  • * Ascham
  • Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.
  • To persist in staying or visiting.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I've charged thee not to haunt about my doors.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A place at which one is regularly found; a hangout.
  • *
  • * 1868 , , "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.
  • (dialect) A ghost.
  • * 1891 , Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country , Nebraska 2005, p. 93:
  • Harnts don't wander much ginerally,’ he said. ‘They hand round thar own buryin'-groun' mainly.’
  • A feeding place for animals.Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed., 1989.
  • References

    Anagrams

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