Besetting

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. Causing ongoing trouble or difficulty that continually affects someone or something
2. Describing a condition or problem that repeatedly burdens or harasses an individual or group
3. Characterizing an issue or hardship that consistently plagues or oppresses over time

Etymology: "Besetting" is built from "beset" plus the suffix "-ing," and the verb "beset" is older and more concrete than its modern sense suggests. Its root meaning is to surround or hem in, as an army might surround a town or a group of attackers might close around a traveler. Over time that picture of being hemmed in turned inward, so that a person could be beset by doubts, debts, or temptations, and eventually by a fault or weakness that keeps coming back. The adjective carries that idea into the present. A "besetting sin" is a particular failing a person returns to again and again, and the phrase has a long pedigree in English moral writing. The word works the same way as the verb: something is persistently pressing in from all sides, and the sufferer cannot easily step outside its reach.

Synonyms: troubling, haunting, persecuting

Antonyms: solving, relieving