source: By Jean-Léon Gérôme - Walters Art Museum: Home page  Info about artwork, Public Domain

WRONG, OPPRESS, PERSECUTE, AGGRIEVE mean to injure unjustly or outrageously.

WRONG implies inflicting injury either unmerited or out of proportion to what one deserves.

e.g. a penal system that had wronged him

OPPRESS suggests inhumane imposing of burdens one cannot endure or exacting more than one can perform.

e.g. a people oppressed by a warmongering tyrant

PERSECUTE implies a relentless and unremitting subjection to annoyance or suffering.

e.g. a child persecuted by constant criticism

AGGRIEVE implies suffering caused by an infringement or denial of rights.

e.g. a legal aid society representing aggrieved minority groups

verb with object

subject (someone) to hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of their race or political or religious beliefs:

(宗教･政治･主義の相違などから長期にわたり) «…という理由で» 〈人が〉虐待を受ける, 迫害される(oppress), しいたげられる «for» ; 〈人･動物が〉いじめられる

e.g. his followers were persecuted by the authorities.

harass or annoy (someone) persistently:

«…で» 〈人〉をうるさく悩ます, …にしつこく迫る «with, by»

e.g. Hilda was persecuted by some of the other girls.

persecutory |ˈpərsəkyəˌtôrē, pərˈsekyəˌtôrē| adjective

late Middle English: from Old French persecuter, from Latin persecut- ‘followed with hostility’, from the verb persequi, from per- ‘through, utterly’ + sequi ‘follow, pursue’.