A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1983 (DOST Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Pester, -ure, v.2 Also: paister. [e.m.E. pester (c 1536), -ure, -re, encumber, crowd, annoy.] tr. To pester. (Found only in passive.) a. To encumber (a place) by overcrowding. b. ? To trouble persistently; to plague or ‘infest’. —1634 Stirling's Royal Lett. II. 751.
Wheras we intend to have the paroch church … ordored … to the end the fabrik may … appear in the trew … proportion thairof without being any wayes parcelled or pestred within 1689 Lanark B. Rec. 230.
It … was continwaly … paistred with souldiers by transient and locall qwarterings so that many tymes the whol houssis were filled 1691 Inverness Kirk S. 36.
The session findeing to be pestured with stranger servants did ordaine [etc.] 1694 Fountainhall Decis. I. 652.
The seas were then … full of pyrates … whether or no he forbore to buy a cargo in regard the seas were pestered
