What's the difference between fester and pester?

Fester


Definition:

  • (n.) To generate pus; to become imflamed and suppurate; as, a sore or a wound festers.
  • (n.) To be inflamed; to grow virulent, or malignant; to grow in intensity; to rankle.
  • (v. t.) To cause to fester or rankle.
  • (n.) A small sore which becomes inflamed and discharges corrupt matter; a pustule.
  • (n.) A festering or rankling.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The lesson for the international community, fatigued or bored by competing stories of Middle Eastern carnage, is that problems that are left to fester only get worse – and always take a terrible human toll.
  • (2) Such a commission should begin work immediately, so that anger and suspicion does not fester while Libyans wait 18 months for a constitutionally elected government.
  • (3) We are in our prime, still strong, living full and interesting lives, not stuck at home festering in a candlewick dressing gown (OK, sometimes, but only when it’s cold and dark outside).
  • (4) Yet just because Mr Hague’s ideas have exploded on the launchpad, it does not mean that the issues they address can be left to fester.
  • (5) So there should be no lifting of sanctions as long as the conflict in Ukraine festers on.
  • (6) Few of these plans have yet been agreed, allowing rumours and fears to fester – and when they do emerge, the government can expect no backing, not even from their own MPs and councillors.
  • (7) These approaches enable the children to find ways to externalise the trauma, rather than letting it fester like an internal time bomb.
  • (8) Depression and anxiety fester when children are not supported.
  • (9) A sense of victimhood festers among even relatively advantaged white men, as the rancorously popular candidacy of Donald Trump confirms.
  • (10) Politically, authorities don't have much reason to; it just reopens a big, festering wound."
  • (11) Resist the urge to stroke her brows as her doubts about him begin to fester.
  • (12) It seems that "festering" is OK if there is a political motivation.
  • (13) It remains one of Europe's most volatile flashpoints, driving away trade and allowing distrust to fester in its place.
  • (14) He noted the ambivalence of the world towards US military actions, but argued that failed states such as Somalia and Afghanistan could not be left to fester.
  • (15) The sectarian enmity that festered during the war years has been reignited by the war in Syria, which pitches a Sunni majority against an Alawite minority with links to Shia Islam .
  • (16) This festering resentment came to a head on 23 January 1974, when the two men ended up wrestling on the floor of an ABC studio in New York, five days before their second fight at Madison Square Garden.
  • (17) It festered after Blair resiled from an understanding that he would step down during a second term.
  • (18) There is festering local anger about culture secretary Andy Burnham's refusal to intervene, and things look increasingly grim, though the proposals' outraged opponents have one last hope: allegations that the obligatory consultation was so half-cocked that it should be subject to judicial review.
  • (19) One politician labelled Yau a “cancer cell” while a pro-China scholar referred to her as a “festering pustule” .
  • (20) But behind all the headlines about the €85bn bailout, there was another festering sore – the banks themselves were nearly bust.

Pester


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To trouble; to disturb; to annoy; to harass with petty vexations.
  • (v. t.) To crowd together in an annoying way; to overcrowd; to infest.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The creation of Albion’s second goal was more artful, even if it started with Özil being pestered into surrendering possession near halfway.
  • (2) It was Tim, an archivist from Warners whom I had been pestering for years about trying to track down some long-lost film footage.
  • (3) They should not pressure children or pester parents to buy products, and promotional offers should be used with a "due sense of responsibility".
  • (4) The allegations are sure to concern many parents whose children are pestering them to buy the extensive range of Cars 2 toys launched to coincide with the movie, which hit UK cinema screens in July.
  • (5) Professional irritant Kenny Miller wins a corner down the right, with some incessant pestering.
  • (6) For a year I have been pestered with: "X has got Facebook.
  • (7) He kept pestering her, phoning and phoning and phoning her."
  • (8) But while the Christians are still pestering God, the end-of-daysers awaiting Armageddon, and the Aryan brothers proving the least convincing imaginable argument for the superiority of their race, things have changed quite drastically in porn, which has been even more vulnerable than cinema, TV or music to the predations of the internet.
  • (9) Kala-azar (KA), an enigmatic disease has resurged in India since 1970's after about a lull of 20 years, displaying its pestering nature.
  • (10) The band became pally with him and pestered for a support slot when his Black Pus project (another great name) came to town.
  • (11) After a bit of good-natured pestering, she agrees to sell all of us one drink so we can discuss the heady topic of race in America while slightly intoxicated.
  • (12) Artists don't stand next to their artwork in galleries pestering the public to part with their pound coins.
  • (13) For now he is determined to stick with his work in the building industry, despite his workmates pestering him for the odd Victoria sponge or carrot cake.
  • (14) Nine hours working as an exterminator takes a physical toll on the 45-year-old , who didn’t go to college, makes $33,000 a year, and relies on a steady swarm of pests to pester people in his 90% rural county.
  • (15) The new boss, Paul Pester, whose £1.6m outstanding bonuses from Lloyds are to be transferred to TSB, is also aiming for growth in current accounts, where it has only 4.2% market share despite having some 6% of high street branches.
  • (16) There are some innovative ideas about, he says, on ways of teaching children in school to wash their hands – in the hope that they will then go home and pester their parents to do the same.
  • (17) Joleon Lescott, who endured a torrid debut for Villa, and Micah Richards were pestered into errors in the opening minutes and the latter was especially relieved that Danny Drinkwater’s shot from 25 yards flew over the bar.
  • (18) Paul Pester, chief executive of TSB, said the branches that were closing were within 500 metres of another TSB branch and were part of the estate it inherited when it was carved out of Lloyds Banking Group last year.
  • (19) Pester said the bank had achieved its target of winning more than 6% of all new current accounts and those being switched between banks.
  • (20) Pester added that, of the 631 branches TSB started with, there were 15 locations where two or three branches were “within spitting distance of each other”.