WORRY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Worry

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/wˈəri/ Listen

verb

Worry v. t. (past & past part. worried; pres. part. worrying)

To harass by pursuit and barking; to attack repeatedly; also, to tear or mangle with the teeth. "A hellhound that doth hunt us all to death; That dog that had his teeth before his eyes, To worry lambs and lap their gentle blood."

To harass or beset with importunity, or with care an anxiety; to vex; to annoy; to torment; to tease; to fret; to trouble; to plague. "A church worried with reformation." "Let them rail, And worry one another at their pleasure." "Worry him out till he gives consent."

To harass with labor; to fatigue. (Colloq.)

Worry v. i. To feel or express undue care and anxiety; to manifest disquietude or pain; to be fretful; to chafe; as, the child worries; the horse worries.

noun

Worry n. (pl. worries) A state of undue solicitude; a state of disturbance from care and anxiety; vexation; anxiety; fret; as, to be in a worry. "The whir and worry of spindle and of loom."

See images of 'Worry'

Etymology of 'Worry'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Worry" Quotes from Famous Books

... very ridiculous of him to worry himself into such a state, but then, reader, he had been working just a little too hard, and it was hardly his fault ...

— The Fifth Form at Saint Dominic's - A School Story • Talbot Baines Reed

... hard work for us, and our whips were but of little use as we could not make them crack like the rest of the party. The cows gave us most trouble, but the dogs hung on to the animals, some catching them by the nose, others by the heels or tails, not ceasing to worry them until they took ...

— Adventures in Australia • W.H.G. Kingston

... in the world, no chance for us young people to enjoy ourselves, without some penalty to pay, some drawback to worry us like these confounded 'all-rounders.' Even here, where all seems free and easy, there's no end of gossips and spies who tattle and watch till you feel as if you lived in a lantern. 'Every one for himself, and the Devil take ...

— A Modern Cinderella - or The Little Old Show and Other Stories • Louisa May Alcott

... the lady's arrival, by her beauty, which might well have tempted any man, and by her air of respectability, that she changed her tactics directly, and she was gone to her father for advice and information in spite of her previous determination not to worry him in his present condition. What he said to her can be briefly told elsewhere; what he ordered her to do was to return and watch the man and ...

— A Perilous Secret • Charles Reade

... ones, and vice versa. If it is equally possible for an event to turn out well or ill, the [Greek: dyskolos] will be annoyed or grieved if the issue is unfavorable, and will not rejoice, should it be happy. On the other hand, the [Greek: eukolos] will neither worry nor fret over an unfavorable issue, but rejoice if it turns out well. If the one is successful in nine out of ten undertakings, he will not be pleased, but rather annoyed that one has miscarried; whilst the other, if only a single one succeeds, will manage to find consolation in the fact ...

— The Essays Of Arthur Schopenhauer: The Wisdom of Life • Arthur Schopenhauer

More quotes...