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:
If you don’t want to respect it, why even bother?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
It seemed as if some aide suffering from conspiracy-brain didn’t bother to check the details, or maybe they asked ChatGPT for help.
From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2026
She said one week, the couple had so many trips planned, they did not bother unpacking their suitcase.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 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 didn’t bother me that Pop was furious.
From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney
That, frankly, bothers me more than almost anything else raised in these etiquette debates.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 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
I can get a coffee in the morning and no-one bothers me and I think that's completely priceless.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
“It’s her business, and maybe something that bothers her, and she doesn’t want a group of people standing around discussing it.”
From "Shouting at the Rain" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
“The way I look, the way I speak, the way I dress, the way I move, the way I sing, the way I write. And at first, it bothered me. I won’t even lie.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
Even if your husband commiserates with you, I wouldn’t assume that he is as bothered by his brother’s actions as you are.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
Nobody had bothered to pay it much attention until the French arrived.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
"What more evidence could you want? I felt like they just couldn't be bothered."
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
The baroness looked drowsy; she had given up taking notes, and when her pencil rolled to the floor she had not bothered to pick it up.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
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
Their colonies grow faster and bigger, and they end up making news headlines by bothering humans.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 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
“Stop bothering Kim, OK?” the man said, according to Ma.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
I saw right away that Grandpa’s idea was a jim-dandy, but there was one thing that was bothering me.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
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.
