n. The act or practice of persecuting; harassing or oppressive treatment; especially, the infliction of injury (as loss of property or civil rights, physical suffering, or death) as a punishment for adhering to some opinion or course of conduct, as a religious creed or a mode of worship,which cannot properly be regarded as criminal.n. Persistent or repeated injury or annoyance of any kind.n. A time of general or systematic oppression or infliction of torture, death, etc., on account of religious opinion or belief: as, the ten persecutions of Christians under the Roman emperors.