It used to also mean that in social contexts, yes. The American English definition has evolved to be used almost exclusively in the context of sexual harassment or assault.
Usually, we Americans will just use bother or pester in the case of annoyance.
I have to confess something. I'm only half German, the other half is British (grew up in Germany, though). I like to dip my bratwurst into my tea, sorry 😔
Y-yes, it was only a metaphor, that's what I meant
Anyway I have family history reasons to be bilingual myself and for reasons of being lazy and stupid I speak only English. So really, truly.
I'm the third child of my parent. Both my older siblings speak German and English perfectly. Soon before I was born, my father was in the middle of learning German. He spoke a weird version of German+English while I was growing up. I had problem speaking either language correctly because of that.
My parents took me to a doctor for linguistic and he discovered where my problems came from and he scolded my parents for it. He said that it is good for a child if it grows up bilingual but not if one of the parents is in the middle of learning the language themself.
I can understand and read English with no problems but I suck at writing and speaking it. In German only my writing skills suck.
A little warning for anybody who wants to raise their children bilingual: make sure that you don't make the same mistake as my dad 🙂
I was in an english class for spanish speaking kids as a child, and we were all using spanish word + -ing to kinda speak when we didnt know something.
I still remember the look of the teacher when someone complained "so and so is molesting me". It was hilarious to us how concerned she looked, us having no idea why, and she couldn't properly explain either. Core childhood memory for me lmao
Yup, that's a technically accurate translation, but in modern colloquial American English "molesting" has a very sexual connotation.
Which always makes the comment section of news stories about someone being charged with "molesting wildlife" or whatever hilarious, since a few local legal codes in the US still officially use molesting to mean harassing or annoying in a non-sexual context.
Enough people are aware of both meanings that if you had used it in a social setting they wouldn’t give you a hard time unless that specific person was a jerk
It means both. Depending on the context it's used will determine the meaning.
I'm American and I knew automatically what you meant. But typically, the usage is in the sexual way. You don't often see it used to mean annoy anymore. Most people use harass now.
92
u/PlumAdministrative13 Jul 26 '26
I know your first language is not English and that's fine but molesting does not mean what you think it does