Difference between Persecute and Oppress

PERSECUTE vs OPPRESS: VERB

To annoy persistently; bother.
To pursue in a manner to injure, grieve, or afflict; to beset with cruelty or malignity; to harass; especially, to afflict, harass, punish, or put to death, for adherence to a particular religious creed or mode of worship.
To harass with importunity; to pursue with persistent solicitations; to annoy.
To oppress or harass with ill-treatment, especially because of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or beliefs.

To keep down by severe and unjust use of force or authority.
To cause to feel worried or depressed.
To overwhelm or crush.
To impose excessive burdens upon; to overload; hence, to treat with unjust rigor or with cruelty.
To ravish; to violate.
To put down; to crush out; to suppress.
To produce a sensation of weight in (some part of the body).

1. To pursue; follow close after.
To pursue with harassing or oppressive treatment; harass or afflict with repeated acts of cruelty or annoyance; injure or afflict persistently; specifically, to afflict, harass, or punish on account of opinions, as for adherence to a particular creed or system of religious principles, or to a mode of worship.
In a weakened sense, to harass or pursue with persistent attentions, solicitations, or other importunities; vex or annoy.

To ravish. Chaucer.
To load or burden with cruel, unjust, or unreasonable impositions or restraints; treat with injustice or undue severity; wield authority over in a burdensome, harsh, or tyrannical manner; keep down by an unjust exercise of power.
To sit or lie heavy on: as, excess of food oppresses the stomach.
To make languid; affect with lassitude: as, oppressed with the heat of the weather.
To overpower or overcome; overbear or overwhelm; suppress; subdue.
To press unduly upon or against; overburden; weigh down, literally or figuratively: as, oppressed with care or anxiety; oppressed with fear.
To press against or upon.

Imprison, Demonize, Vilify, Dog, Follow, Continue, Monitor, Haunt, Pursue, Bully, Persecution, Prosecute, Intimidate, Harass, Oppress

Victimize, Marginalize, Tyrannize, Brutalize, Enslave, Subjugate, Shouldest, Quell, Bully, Stifle, Repress, Crush, Suppress, Harass, Persecute

Imprison, Demonize, Vilify, Dog, Follow, Continue, Monitor, Haunt, Pursue, Bully, Persecution, Prosecute, Intimidate, Harass, Oppress

Terrorize, Victimize, Marginalize, Tyrannize, Brutalize, Enslave, Subjugate, Shouldest, Quell, Bully, Stifle, Crush, Suppress, Harass, Persecute

Fut to death for osiers belief; persecute, tortfurc; disfigure, mutilate.
Gentiles, in turn, are not to persecute the Jews excessively.
It is not my aim to persecute Bo Fowler.
Persecute cars and enslave their owners with punishing taxation.
Enlightenment in their own right for those persecute!
What is it that you hate and persecute?
The coming Antichrist will also destroy and persecute.
When will you judge those who persecute me?
Must you also persecute me, like God does?
Jesus made it clear to Paul that to persecute believers is to persecute Jesus himself, and therefore, when a believer suffers, Jesus suffers too.

He has forbidden us to oppress one another, Lev.
It's war against the powers that oppress us.
Is it not the rich who oppress you?
Ungodly governments use their power to oppress people.
Savage Oppress and handed Maul a humiliating defeat.
God had allowed the Midianites to oppress them.
Do not oppress or take advantage of anyone.
Utah were not created to oppress the LDS, but to oppress the practice.
Middle East it was either Sunnis oppress Shia, or Shia oppress Sunnis, and both of them beat up the Kurds.
People will oppress each other, and everyone will oppress his neighbor.