molestation

[ moh-le-stey-shuhn, mol-e- ]

noun

1. touching a nonconsenting person, especially a child, in a sexual manner: sexual abuse.

   He was arrested on charges of lewd and lascivious molestation and child abuse.

2. an act or instance of interference with or violence against someone:

   Under the terms of the citadel’s surrender, the Persians were allowed to pass without molestation through the midst of the Roman army.

Word History and Origins

Origin of molestation¹

First recorded in 1600–10; molest ( def ) + -ation ( def )

Example Sentences

Patrick Mester was a teacher at Enochs High School in Modesto — where three teachers have been arrested on molestation charges in the last 12 years — when he was arrested in March 2021 for alleged “inappropriate communication” with one of his female students and was fired by the school.

From Los Angeles Times

In 2023, another teacher at the school was arrested on child molestation charges.

From Los Angeles Times

In 2014, the Los Angeles Archdiocese settled what it believed would be the last of its pending priest molestation lawsuits and imposed a series of reforms.

From Los Angeles Times

In 2013, documents were released that showed Mahony and a top advisor plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement.

From Los Angeles Times

It's also adapted from a 2014 memoir by a Black author, Charles M. Blow, who retold his upbringing in rural Louisiana fraught with emotional turmoil, largely devoid of parental affection and tormented with the harsh echoes of sexual molestation.

From Salon

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