bother
Americanverb (used with object)
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bothers,
present (3rd person singular)
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bothered,
past participle, past
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bothering
present participle
verb (used without object)
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bothers,
present (3rd person singular)
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bothered,
past participle, past
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bothering
present participle
noun
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bothers
plural
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something troublesome, burdensome, or annoying.
Doing the laundry every week can be a terrible bother.
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effort, work, or worry.
Gardening takes more bother than it's worth.
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a worried or perplexed state.
Don't get into such a bother about small matters.
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someone or something that bothers or annoys.
My cousin is a perpetual bother to me.
interjection
verb
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(tr) to give annoyance, pain, or trouble to; irritate
his bad leg is bothering him again
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(tr) to trouble (a person) by repeatedly disturbing; pester
stop bothering your father!
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(intr) to take the time or trouble; concern oneself
don't bother to come with me
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(tr) to make (a person) alarmed or confused
the thought of her husband's return clearly bothered her
noun
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a state of worry, trouble, or confusion
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a person or thing that causes fuss, trouble, or annoyance
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informal a disturbance or fight; trouble (esp in the phrase a spot of bother )
interjection
Synonym Usage
Bother, annoy, plague, tease imply persistent interference with one's comfort or peace of mind. Bother suggests causing trouble or weariness or repeatedly interrupting in the midst of pressing duties. To annoy is to vex or irritate by bothering. Plague is a strong word, connoting unremitting annoyance and harassment. To tease is to provoke or irritate persistently with petty distractions.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bothersimple
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botherssimple
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have botheredperfect
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has botheredperfect
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am botheringprogressive
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are botheringprogressive
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is botheringprogressive
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have been botheringperfect progressive
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has been botheringperfect progressive
Past
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botheredsimple
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had botheredperfect
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was botheringprogressive
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were botheringprogressive
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had been botheringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bother
First recorded in 1710–20; origin obscure; originally Hiberno-English; perhaps a hypercorrection of bodder, an alternative early form; perhaps a variant of pother ( def. )
Explanation
The word bother has many shades of meaning, but most of them involve trouble of some sort. You might wonder why you should bother to follow a recipe, until you taste what you've made without one. As a verb, bother can mean that you take the trouble to do something. It’s often presented as a negative: you might not bother to lock the house, or you may wonder why you should bother reading the instructions that came with your phone. Bother can also mean that you’re bugging someone or causing a minor inconvenience. The word can also have a sense of deeper worry, especially when something is bothering you, like a nagging sense of guilt.
Vocabulary lists containing bother
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 4
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"Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto
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The New SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
She has an up-and-down relationship with her one close friend, and she hesitates to bother her adored brother, Laurie, if it means bothering Laurie’s wife.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
When he does bother to campaign, he makes peculiar choices, such as at a late August event for which he wore a Four Seasons Orlando–branded golf shirt and what appeared to be a $40,000 watch.
From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2026
"It's affected the town - people don't bother now, they bypass Castletown. You can't rely on the tourists and coaches coming because there's nothing for them."
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
It was important that Misty be seen as someone who is in fact immensely talented, who may even be worth all the bother and strife that she brings along with her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
I didn’t even bother since my partner was a biter.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Pushed on whether it bothers her that people who create jobs and pay a lot of tax were leaving the UK, the minister said she was "optimistic about our country's prospects".
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
These are fair questions the film never bothers to consider, instead favoring inert dialogue and needle drops that tell the audience when they’re supposed to be moved.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
"I figure it'll probably disintegrate and probably nobody will ever hear it, that's what bothers me... if it rots in there before they open it."
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
I think this really bothers a lot of young people.
From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2026
It both bothers and reassures me that, in my mind, he'll always be seventeen.
From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse
What bothered her most about the traditional workplace was the idea of asking permission to take time off.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026
“If you’re in the middle of a very interesting conversation, it just breaks the flow,” said Bucquet, whose wife is less bothered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
However, it can leave some people wondering why they bothered to save in the first place.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
Roberts said he didn’t learn until Tuesday night, after giving Ohtani a day off for the fifth time in six games, that a swing on Monday had bothered him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
Each had a parent who couldn’t be bothered.
From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Their colonies grow faster and bigger, and they end up making news headlines by bothering humans.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
JapanLA was auctioning the rarest Sonny Angels for hundreds of dollars, and that started bothering some fans of the fat little collectibles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
When it offered him half a song, he said, “Good enough” — without even bothering to run it through a few rounds of polishing.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
But the result is often fishy products that exist because investors aren’t bothering to do the math.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
“It’s a long story,” I said, not bothering to explain.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
