ISEE/SSAT Vocabulary BuilderWordsHhector
ISEE/SSAThard
hector
Meaning: to bully or intimidate someone through aggressive words or demands
hector in a sentence
How hector is used in real sentences:
The supervisor would hector junior employees whenever a deadline approached.
The captain hectored the exhausted crew, shouting threats until they returned to work.
“At a public meeting, he began to hector her, repeating demands for a cheerful solution and speaking over every attempt to explain the evidence.”
— from the passage The Visible Scars
Synonyms for hector
Other words for hector — bully, browbeat and intimidate — carry the same meaning.
- bully
- browbeat
- intimidate
Antonyms of hector
Words that mean the opposite of hector:
- reassure
- encourage
- soothe
Where it comes from
From Hector of Trojan legend, whose name later became a term for a swaggering bully.
Memory hook
HECTOR sounds like 'heckler': both try to bully with words.