nuisance

noun

1. an obnoxious or annoying person, thing, condition, practice, etc.: a monthly meeting that was more nuisance than pleasure.
2. Law. something offensive or annoying to individuals or to the community, especially in violation of their legal rights.

noun

1. 1. a person or thing that causes annoyance or bother
   2. (as modifier)nuisance calls
2. law something unauthorized that is obnoxious or injurious to the community at large (public nuisance) or to an individual, esp in relation to his ownership or occupation of property (private nuisance)
3. nuisance value the usefulness of a person’s or thing’s capacity to cause difficulties or irritation

n.c.1400, “injury, hurt, harm,” from Anglo-French nusaunce, Old French nuisance “harm, wrong, damage,” from past participle stem of nuire “to harm,” from Latin nocere “to hurt” (see noxious). Sense has softened over time, to “anything obnoxious to a community” (bad smells, pests, eyesores), 1660s, then “source of annoyance, something personally disagreeable” (1831). Applied to persons from 1690s. see make a nuisance of oneself.