besetment

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be·set

(bĭ-sĕt′)

tr.v. be·set, be·set·ting, be·sets

1. To attack from all sides.

2. To trouble persistently; harass. See Synonyms at attack.

3. To hem in; surround: "the mountains which beset it round" (Nathaniel Hawthorne).

4. To stud, as with jewels.

[Middle English bisetten, from Old English besettan; see sed- in Indo-European roots.]

be·set′ment n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

besetment

(bɪˈsɛtmənt)

the state or condition of being beset

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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besetment

noun

Something that annoys:

aggravation, annoyance, bother, irritant, irritation, nuisance, peeve, plague, torment, vexation.

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References in classic literature ?

They seem to lie upon us like a deep flood; and it's my besetment to forget where I am and everything about me, and lose myself in thoughts that I could give no account of, for I could neither make a beginning nor ending of them in words.

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The spiritual vulgarity of the doctrine, so far as material things are concerned, is clearly illustrated in the mechanically virtuous Pamela, who, even in the midst of the most outrageous besetments of Squire B , is hoping with all her soul for the triumph which is actually destined for her, of becoming his wife and so rising high above her original humble station.

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The location of the wintering was given by Gore in 1847 and the date of besetment by Fitzjames in 1848, and there was accordingly no clear implication that the ships had been trapped north of King William Island on 12 September 1846.