bother
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
-
something troublesome, burdensome, or annoying.
Doing the laundry every week can be a terrible bother.
-
effort, work, or worry.
Gardening takes more bother than it's worth.
-
a worried or perplexed state.
Don't get into such a bother about small matters.
-
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!
-
(intr) to take the time or trouble; concern oneself
don't bother to come with me
-
(tr) to make (a person) alarmed or confused
the thought of her husband's return clearly bothered her
noun
-
a state of worry, trouble, or confusion
-
a person or thing that causes fuss, trouble, or annoyance
-
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
-
bothersimple
-
botherssimple
-
have botheredperfect
-
has botheredperfect
-
am botheringprogressive
-
are botheringprogressive
-
is botheringprogressive
-
have been botheringperfect progressive
-
has been botheringperfect progressive
Past
-
botheredsimple
-
had botheredperfect
-
was botheringprogressive
-
were botheringprogressive
-
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 she’d have gone to Lowe’s or Home Depot, it wouldn’t bother me. But you’re opening a school? That bothered me.”
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
When Vera C. Bushfield succeeded her late husband in 1948, she didn’t even bother to move to Washington.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
"Now there are rules... laws that protect us. Maybe the maramba understands that, so they do not bother us too much anymore."
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
I hear, for instance, that he may not bother with a lectern for his first speech as prime minister, outside 10 Downing Street, on Monday.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
The bus driver was a small shrew who didn’t bother much with discipline, as he was too busy trying to see far enough over the steering wheel to drive without killing anything.
From "Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody" by Patrick Ness
“If that bothers you, don’t hesitate to mute or block me. I don’t have the capacity or patience to debate with internet strangers as to why they should be considerate of marginalized communities.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 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
Seeing Dodgers players wearing red gloves, mismatched undershirts, and other non-team colors bothers me more than it should.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026
But it bothers me that the last two times that small-caps beat the biggest by so much, it was painful for investors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
Now I ask Natalie about the sun every morning and it only bothers me a little when she doesn’t answer.
From "Al Capone Does My Shirts" by Gennifer Choldenko
“If she’d have gone to Lowe’s or Home Depot, it wouldn’t bother me. But you’re opening a school? That bothered me.”
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
She’s not bothered, though, since what the experience did do was “give me the confidence to produce this album for myself.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
“They didn’t seem bothered by my presence in the least.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Through more than four years of the Russian invasion, 27-year-old Oleksiy Virskovsky largely hasn't bothered going to the underground shelter in the building next door -- despite almost nightly missile and drone attacks.
From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026
I could tell by the wrinkled brow and whiny tone that he was bothered by the fact that Fiona was doing my makeup.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
Having these tasks helped him and other interns stay productive and avoid bothering senior associates when they had a lull in their work, he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
He said this was because the changes were "fraught with hoops you have to jump through" that "deters a lot of people from even bothering".
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
Alana H., who asked not to use her last name, said she wasn’t even bothering to vote.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2026
There’s already evidence that more people with low scores aren’t even bothering to try to get financing because they’re expecting to be rejected.
From MarketWatch ● May 4, 2026
But on he drove, ignoring or not bothering to worry about the looks she threw at him filled with confusion and curiosity.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
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.
