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Pesky   /pˈɛski/   Listen
Pesky

adjective
1.
Causing irritation or annoyance.  Synonyms: annoying, bothersome, galling, irritating, nettlesome, pestering, pestiferous, plaguey, plaguy, teasing, vexatious, vexing.  "Aircraft noise is particularly bothersome near the airport" , "Found it galling to have to ask permission" , "An irritating delay" , "Nettlesome paperwork" , "A pesky mosquito" , "Swarms of pestering gnats" , "A plaguey newfangled safety catch" , "A teasing and persistent thought annoyed him" , "A vexatious child" , "It is vexing to have to admit you are wrong"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Pesky" Quotes from Famous Books



... the chance which brought me there. That I was a prisoner I did not doubt, until the man at my side said to me, cheerily: 'Well, old chap, you've come through it like a major, though I was mighty dubious a spell about that pesky ball. But old Aunt Bab and me fished it out, and since ...
— Family Pride - Or, Purified by Suffering • Mary J. Holmes

... pesky shopkeepers of all are those who hive in the ground floors of the professedly converted palaces that face on three sides of the Square of Saint Mark's. You dare not hesitate for the smallest fractional part of a second in front of a shop here. Lurking inside the open door is a husky puller-in; ...
— Europe Revised • Irvin S. Cobb

... I woke in the night," remarked Josh, "and as the wind slackened up a bit, I heard the awfullest noise ever. Sounded just like somebody was hollerin' for help. And when I remembered all they told us about this pesky place, I was a long time getting to sleep again, ...
— Motor Boat Boys Down the Coast - or Through Storm and Stress to Florida • Louis Arundel

... might write death-certificates; you might have Rome coffined and nailed down, and be riding gaily to the funeral;—but you could not convince her she was dead; and at the very graveside, sure enough, the 'pesky critter' (as they say) would be bursting open the coffin lid; would finish the ceremony with you for the corpse, and then ride home smiling to enjoy her triumph, thank God for his mercies,—and get back to her hoe and her cabbages as quickly ...
— The Crest-Wave of Evolution • Kenneth Morris

... boy," said Old Rocks. "Ef them pesky varmints ain't gone away entirely, they're up ter mischief, ...
— Frank Merriwell's Bravery • Burt L. Standish

... my launch and my fishing-boats in there," explained Milo. as he climbed out of the car. "If it wasn't for that pesky swamp. I could have had this pier directly back of my house, and saved a ...
— Black Caesar's Clan • Albert Payson Terhune

... 'long 'bout that time, burnin' the Widder Brown's house and her an' her baby a-hidin' in a holler tree near by, an' carryin' off critters an' bosses, an' that day yer gran'ther was after 'em with a posse o' men, an' what did that pesky Injun do but git up on a rock a quarter o' a mile off an' jestickerlate in an outrigerous manner, like a sarcy boy, an' yer grand'ther, he took aim and fired, an' that impident Injun jest tumbel over with a yell; his last, mind ye, and good ...
— Our Boys - Entertaining Stories by Popular Authors • Various

... here. The Injuns have got this section combed out clean. You couldn't get enough plumes around here to pay for your bacon. Now, I knows of a tidy little island 'bout twelve miles south of here where there's stacks of the birds. If you start right now you'll hit it before them pesky varmints of redskins find it. I'm telling you in pay for that tobacco. Max Hilliard ain't the kind of man to take nothing without paying for ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... askin' you ter do no preachin'. What I did ain't no more'n any man 'round here does—if he's smart enough ter catch one. Rigged-up broomsticks ain't in it with a live bird when it comes ter drivin' away them pesky, thievin' crows. There ain't a farmer 'round here that hain't been green with envy, ever since I caught the critter. An' now ter have you come along an' with one flip o'yer knife spile it all, I—Well, it jest makes me mad, clean ...
— Just David • Eleanor H. Porter

... campfire, which twinkled from the old rail fence. As he groped toward it curses sprang up like mustard from the earth beneath. "Get off my leg, and be damned," growled a voice under his feet. "Oh, this here ain't no pesky jedgment day," exclaimed another just ahead. Without answering he stepped over the dark bodies, and, ten minutes later, came upon Big Abel waiting ...
— The Battle Ground • Ellen Glasgow

... about 'em to folks, p'intin' out that little stone that he'd stubbed his toe on, and this pesky weed that stung him, and t'other little mite o' mud he'd conceited somebody'd throwed at him. He fretted and scolded and complained 'bout 'em, and made out that nobody never had so many tryin' things gettin' in his way as he had. He never ...
— Story-Tell Lib • Annie Trumbull Slosson

... a nice garden. What pesky villains all these people must be, considerin' that they wear good clothes and don't break the furnitoor. There's that chap that deserted his wife. I'll fix him."—Hides himself ...
— Punchinello, Vol.1, No. 12 , June 18,1870 • Various

... white woman, 'bout half on 'em war colored—not black, but sorter half-and-half. Now, the white sons war well-behaved, industrious, hard-workin' boys, who got 'long well, edicated that children, and allers treated the old man decently; but the mulatter fellers war a pesky set—though some on 'em war better nor others. They wouldn't work, but set up for airystocrocy—rode in kerriges, kept fast hosses, bet high, and chawed tobaccer like the devil. Wal, the result was, they got out at the elbows, and 'cause they warn't gettin' 'long quite so fast as the white ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. No. 1. • Various

... don't know! When doctors fail to cure a disease, it seems pesky mean to blame it on the Lord! If we were only rich enough, I bet we could find some clever doctor who could make her O.K.! Why couldn't it have been a ...
— Peggy-Alone • Mary Agnes Byrne

... "It's ther pesky little cuss as come in with ye yesterday, sir," he returned with a grin. "He's confiscated a muel somewhar an' says he's a goin' back hum 'long o' ...
— My Lady of the North • Randall Parrish

... other, in a low voice; "you were so good to stand up for me when I told you about those pesky opals, that I just thought after all I'd let you know ...
— Fred Fenton on the Crew - or, The Young Oarsmen of Riverport School • Allen Chapman

... wasn't 'zactly 'fraid of him," added Enoch, thinking some explanation necessary, "but I saw if I fought him it would bring the man at the fire to help, and I couldn't fight two of 'em, anyway. The pesky Injin made me walk to the crick with him an' then he told me to go home and not come back. I wish 'Siah Bolderwood was ...
— With Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga • W. Bert Foster

... a yarn," said Tom Fish. "But le' me see now; le' me see. It was back when I was jes a young buck, 'long 'bout '64, that this Colonel Boquet, who was a mighty decent citizen for a Frenchman, made up his mind to get a whack at the pesky Injuns which had been killin' an' scalpin' an' burnin' an' robbin' all along the border of Pennsylvania an' Virginia ...
— Far Past the Frontier • James A. Braden

... blow down to Bostin, Zekle; there's no more gettin' out o' harbour with our old sloop; she's ben an' gone, an' got some 'tarnal lawyer's job spliced to her bows, an' she's laid up to dry; but that's a pesky small part o' judgment. Bostin's full o' them Britishers, sech as scomfishkated the Susan Jane, cos our skipper done suthin' he hedn't oughter, or didn't do suthin' he hed oughter; and I tell yew the end o' things is nigh about ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1, Nov. 1857 • Various

... to their several stations, disbanded, and fairly at their labors in the field, when there again was the Indian war-whoop ringing along the periled border as melodiously as ever, and the pillaging, murdering, scalping, and burning going on in the good old orthodox fashion the pesky red ...
— Burl • Morrison Heady

... somebody was killed an' I run out. I tripped over the string an' it pulled the spigot open. I barked my shins, an' when I looked in the store, after seein' nobody was hurt, the molasses was runnin' all over. Oh, wait till I git hold of that pesky boy!" ...
— Bob the Castaway • Frank V. Webster

... Hafford? When did you return from A fortnit ago. You diddent, did ye? Hartford? A fortnight ago. It Ju see my Danel, whose sot up a is possible! Didyou see my son tarvern there? No. Hede gone afore Daniel, who has opened a public I got there. O, the pesky criter! house there? No. He had left Hele soon be up a stump. before I arrived there. O, the paltry fellow! He will ...
— English Grammar in Familiar Lectures • Samuel Kirkham

... Hartman's turn to stare, and stare he did, first at the spoiled fruit and then at the flying girls, too stunned to understand. The hot blood mounted to his forehead, he shook his fist in unreasoning anger and yelled, "Drat your pesky hides! Come back here and I'll tan you good! What do you mean by spoiling all that high-priced fruit? Oh, if I just had ...
— At the Little Brown House • Ruth Alberta Brown

... hisself befo' he dies," the older conspirator muttered to Shade as the stretcher passed them, and the skilled, white-jacketed attendants laid Pros Passmore in the vehicle without so much as disturbing his breathing. "He'll jest about come to hisself thar, and them pesky doctors 'll have word about the silver mine. Well, in this world, them that has, gits, mostly. Ef Johnnie Consadine had been any manner o' kin to me, I vow I'd 'a' taken a hickory to her when she set up her word agin' ...
— The Power and the Glory • Grace MacGowan Cooke

... "Them pesky Injuns hes stole our hosses," added old Matt, as he fired his rifle the second time. "'Tain't no use; I might as well ...
— Field and Forest - The Fortunes of a Farmer • Oliver Optic

... went on. "The paper had sent you off on some pesky assignment, and you were just a wee bit late. And we had a sort of a tiff about it until I happened to look up at the picture over the table, and 'The Girl with the Laughing Eyes' was looking straight ...
— Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 6, July 1905 • Various

... devil"—(sly, but awfully emphatic nudge from Grandma) "ahem! we're all born under a cuss!" persisted Grandpa, with irate satisfaction. "I've steered through a good many oceans," he continued, more softly, "but thar' ain't none so—misty—as this—a—" (portentous nudge from Grandma,) "as this pesky ocean of Life! We've got to keep a sharp look-out" (another nudge from Grandma), "ahem, steer clear of the rocks," (persistent nudges from Grandma), "ahem! ahem! trust in God Almighty!" admitted Grandpa with telling ...
— Cape Cod Folks • Sarah P. McLean Greene

... "He's a pesky varmint!" grunted Hill. "He might 'a' died, there in Hogan's bungalow, if it hadn't been for Clancy. It was almost the same as turnin' on the fellow that saved his life. I ain't got ...
— Owen Clancy's Happy Trail - or, The Motor Wizard in California • Burt L. Standish

... said Grandpa Possum, "if I ever catch those pesky squirrels I'll make them wince, yes, I will, ...
— Little Jack Rabbit and the Squirrel Brothers • David Cory

... would take him such a pison long time to dig them into a rock he wouldn't ever get out. But Tom said he would let me help him do it. Then he took a look to see how me and Jim was getting along with the pens. It was most pesky tedious hard work and slow, and didn't give my hands no show to get well of the sores, and we didn't seem to make no headway, ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... fly, We will watch him, you and I; Lest he fall in Baby's mouth, Bringing germs from north and south. In the world of things a-wing There is not a nastier thing Than this pesky little fly;— So we'll ...
— A line-o'-verse or two • Bert Leston Taylor

... again! A pest upon the fellow! (He strides up and down the room, keeping out of the way of his sword as much as possible.) Would that I might pink the pesky knave! ...
— Happy Days • Alan Alexander Milne

... isn't as easy to shoot one of the pesky coyotes as you'd think, and it isn't much use. They don't do any particular harm around here. Besides, you didn't ...
— The Boy Ranchers - or Solving the Mystery at Diamond X • Willard F. Baker

... says I to myself, "I have a pesky good mind to go in and have a try with one of these chaps, and see if they can twist my eye-teeth out. If they can get the best end of a bargain out of me, they can do what there ain't a man in our place can do; and I should just like to know ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume III. (of X.) • Various

... me into that pesky lawyer's clutches, ye'll know it! Ye can't trap me. I guess I know more about law than ye do, ye damned little upstart ye! Why couldn't ye have kept your dead man's shoes to home, darn ye? Ye'll come on the town ...
— Jerome, A Poor Man - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... poor Jud. "That's my harness soap. I don't see how your town gets along with all four of you the year around. Well, you can just help me bail out this water—that's flat. Wring out that pesky wash and spread it on the grass to dry. Then each of you take one of those lard pails, and ...
— Four Little Blossoms at Brookside Farm • Mabel C. Hawley

... it keenly, and drew still farther into her shell of reticence, keeping closely to her studies and home duties, until the neighbors had some excuse for their plaints that "she didn't care for nothin' nor nobody but them pesky books!" ...
— Sara, a Princess • Fannie E. Newberry

... Gray could signal to E McGinnis. Those pesky colonists! Why hadn't they signaled to E Gray? Why hadn't they come out of their bushes and signaled the danger? Surely they must know what it was. They were alive and healthy, three of them at least. Why hadn't they used ...
— Eight Keys to Eden • Mark Irvin Clifton

... his face dark, 'this prideful Sir Marhaus, waiting so long, hath made his terms the harder. I fear, good fellow, your knighthood hath been earned of me too easily, even if ye are not in league with this pesky Irish knight,' he went on, his narrow eyes gleaming with suspicion. 'He sayeth now that he will not fight with any knight unless he be of blood royal on his mother's side or father's. Say, are ye some starveling knight's ...
— King Arthur's Knights - The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls • Henry Gilbert

... didn't anybody lose it. Shields had nine thousand men, and he just gained it!—Shields the best man they've had in the Valley. Kernstown!—Heard what the boys at Middletown called Banks? Mr. Commissary Banks. Oh, law! that pesky ...
— The Long Roll • Mary Johnston

... Conniston girl. I forgot to tell you I've took time by the forelock. Two weeks ago I wrote an' told her I'd learned you was hittin' into the Great Slave country, an' that I was about to hike after you. So go to sleep an' don't worry about that pesky little rattlesnake." ...
— The River's End • James Oliver Curwood

... Jack. "I was asking you about that when we ran into those pesky meteors. What is this expedition? Where ...
— A Columbus of Space • Garrett P. Serviss

... they are all right now. They haven't had any grievance for a long time, and they are as trustworthy as Indians ever get to be. I wouldn't put any faith in them, however. I'd have been worth half a million dollars if it hadn't been for those pesky redskins." ...
— Elam Storm, The Wolfer - The Lost Nugget • Harry Castlemon

... . I suppose them pesky hens are in my pansy bed again," said Marilla, rising and going ...
— Anne Of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery



Words linked to "Pesky" :   disagreeable



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