Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PER-SE-CU'TION, n.

1. The act or practice of persecuting; the infliction of pain, punishment or death upon others unjustly, particularly for adhering to a religious creed or mode of worship, either by way of penalty or for compelling them to renounce their principles. Historians enumerate ten persecutions suffered by the Christians, beginning with that of Nero, A. D. 31, and ending with that of Diocletian, A. D. 303 to 313.
2. The state of being persecuted. Our necks are under persecution; we labor and have no rest. – Lam v.