Emily Dickinson Lexicon

NUI'SANCE, or NU'SANCE, n. [Fr. nuisance, from nuire, L. noceo, to annoy. Blackstone writes nusance, and it is desirable that his example may be followed.]

1. That which annoys or gives trouble and vexation; that which is offensive or noxious. A liar is a nuisance to society.
2. In law, that which incommodes or annoys; something that produces inconvenience or damage. Nuisances are public or private; public, when they annoy citizens in general, as obstructions of the highway; private, when they affect individuals only, as when one man erects a house so near his neighbor's as to throw the water off the roof upon his neighbor's land or house, or to intercept the light that his neighbor before enjoyed. Blackstone.