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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

bother.

To annoy, to disturb, to irritate; to be troublesome to, to make trouble for.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈbɔðə(ɹ)/Australia/ˈbɒðə(ɹ)/Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɑðɚ/General-American

  1. To annoy, to disturb, to irritate; to be troublesome to, to make trouble for.

    transitive
    Would it bother you if I smoked?

  2. To annoy, to disturb, to irritate; to be troublesome to, to make trouble for. Damn; curse.

    euphemistic · imperative · transitive

  3. To feel care or concern; to burden or inconvenience oneself out of concern.

    intransitive · reflexive
    I never bother about such trivialities.
    I wouldn't bother with an umbrella if I were you.

  4. To take the trouble, to trouble oneself (to do something).

    catenative · intransitive
    Why do I even bother to try?

  5. To take the trouble, to trouble oneself (to do something). To do something which is of negligible inconvenience.

    catenative · intransitive
    You didn’t even bother to close the door.
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Scots bauther, bather (“to bother”). Origin unknown. Perhaps related to Scots pother (“to make a stir or commotion, bustle”), also of unknown origin. Compare English pother (“to poke, prod”), variant of potter (“to poke”). More at potter. Perhaps related to Irish bodhaire (“noise”), Irish bodhraim (“to deafen, annoy”).

noun/ˈbɔðə(ɹ)/Australia/ˈbɒðə(ɹ)/Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɑðɚ/General-American

  1. Fuss, ado.

    countable · uncountable
    There was a bit of bother at the hairdresser's when they couldn't find my appointment in the book.

  2. Trouble, inconvenience.

    countable · uncountable
    Yes, I can do that for you—it’s no bother.
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Scots bauther, bather (“to bother”). Origin unknown. Perhaps related to Scots pother (“to make a stir or commotion, bustle”), also of unknown origin. Compare English pother (“to poke, prod”), variant of potter (“to poke”). More at potter. Perhaps related to Irish bodhaire (“noise”), Irish bodhraim (“to deafen, annoy”).

intj/ˈbɔðə(ɹ)/Australia/ˈbɒðə(ɹ)/Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɑðɚ/General-American

  1. A mild expression of annoyance.

    dated · euphemistic
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Scots bauther, bather (“to bother”). Origin unknown. Perhaps related to Scots pother (“to make a stir or commotion, bustle”), also of unknown origin. Compare English pother (“to poke, prod”), variant of potter (“to poke”). More at potter. Perhaps related to Irish bodhaire (“noise”), Irish bodhraim (“to deafen, annoy”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.