bother

views updated Jun 11 2018

both·er / ˈbä[voicedth]ər/ • v. 1. take the trouble to do something: nobody bothered locking the doors the driver didn't bother to ask why.2. (of a circumstance or event) worry, disturb, or upset (someone): secrecy is an issue that bothers journalists. ∎  trouble or annoy (someone) by interrupting or causing inconvenience: she didn't feel she could bother Mike with the problem. ∎  [intr.] feel concern about or interest in: don't bother about me—I'll find my own way home [as adj.] (bothered) I'm not particularly bothered about how I look. • n. effort, worry, or difficulty: he saved me the bother of having to come up with a speech. ∎  (a bother) a person or thing that causes worry or difficulty: I hope she hasn't been a bother. ∎  a nuisance or inconvenience: it's no bother, it's on my way home.PHRASES: hot and bothered in a state of anxiety or physical discomfort.ORIGIN: late 17th cent. (as a noun in the dialect sense ‘noise, chatter’): of Anglo-Irish origin; probably related to Irish bodhaire ‘noise,’ bodhraim ‘deafen, annoy.’ The verb (originally dialect) meant ‘confuse with noise’ in the early 18th cent.

bother

views updated May 18 2018

bother (dial.) bewilder with noise, confuse; pester, worry. XVIII. — Ir. bodhraim deafen.
Hence bother sb. XIX.