Loading page
say it: BAH-thur
bother is a verb and noun meaning "take the trouble to do something; concern oneself". It is pronounced /ˈbɑðɚ/ — BAH-thur. It carries 8 recorded senses.
take the trouble to do something; concern oneself
“He did not trouble to call his mother on her birthday”
“Don't bother, please”
cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations
“Mosquitoes buzzing in my ear really bothers me”
“It irritates me that she never closes the door after she leaves”
to cause inconvenience or discomfort to
“Sorry to trouble you, but...”
intrude or enter uninvited
“Don't bother the professor while she is grading term papers”
make nervous or agitated
“The mere thought of her bothered him and made his heart beat faster”
make confused or perplexed or puzzled
an angry disturbance
“he didn't want to make a fuss”
“they had labor trouble”
“a spot of bother”
something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness
“washing dishes was a nuisance before we got a dish washer”
“a bit of a bother”
“he's not a friend, he's an infliction”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for bother come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.