Harass

harass
verb, transitive. To subject to aggressive pressure or intimidation. To make repeated small-scale attacks (military).

The cheek of birds when confronting creatures who can and do prey on them is always surprising.

Bluejays steal food from the housecats' bowl. It's easy for them to get away with this when the bowl sits on the porch; not so easy when the bowl is in the garage. The side door is open, but it is a mostly-enclosed space. One marauding jay was caught while snacking. The cat trotted out of the garage, the bird in his mouth. The cat changed the grip of his jaw and the bluejay was able to escape. Within three minutes, he returned with all his friends and relatives, who landed in the trees and proceeded to squawk insults at the cat, who sat glumly, sphinxlike, glaring at them.

More surprising is what crows do to hawks and owls when they find one. A group of crows will pursue a raptor, cawing and even approaching it and pecking at it in flight. They will harrass the larger, more threatening bird until they have driven it out of their territory.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.

Gall

gall
verb, transitive. To fret and wear away by friction. To chafe, irritate or vex. To harass.
verb, intransitive. To become sore or worn by rubbing. Also, a noun.

The executive desk chair creaked faintly as Darrel pushed away from the keyboard and leaned back. He flexed his shoulders, trying to ease their tension. He must be getting old, he thought, then chuckled aloud. Of course he was: he had turned sixty-seven on his last birthday. He wondered again why he had accepted the job of running this company when the owner decided he wanted to take early retirement. It had seemed a good idea at the time, but since then, the restrictions on what he could do to promote and grow the business had galled him, more with each passing month.

He didn't need to review the books to know that they had now been operating in the red for more than half a year. He had done everything he knew how to do as a manager: kept strict tabs on employee performance and hours, made countless suggestions to the customer-service representative, and held endless phone conversations with former and present clients. Still, revenues continued to drop.

Conversations with the employees whose opinions he trusted the most yielded the same conclusion he had reached himself, some time ago.

"We need to advertise," Lizzy had advised, her round face solemn. Darrel didn't need to ask Russ, who sat glumly, staring at the floor. He knew that Russ would agree.

"What if we just did it, in a small way, then justified it to Steve later, after it bore fruit?" Nancy had asked, her head cocked to one side. "You've heard that old saying, haven't you Darrel? 'It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.'"

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.