verb
beset
bih-SET/bɪˈset/
To trouble persistently.
Competing demands beset the overwhelmed worker.
Etymology
Putting things around people gives the image of surrounding or besieging them. The same image applies to troubles pressing upon someone from every side, a figurative use already found in Old English.
In context
for all the pandemic and the righteous Uprising in the wake of the murder of George Floyd have taught us yet again that we are a nation and a city beset by racial Injustice
More examples
- The team was beset by delays.
- Doubts have beset her from the beginning.
- The same difficulties kept besetting the expedition.
Forms
beset · besets · besetting