Bother

//ˈbɔðə(ɹ)// intj, noun, verb

intj, noun, verb ·Very common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 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. 2
    something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness wordnet
  3. 3
    Trouble, inconvenience. countable, uncountable

    "Yes, I can do that for you—it’s no bother."

  4. 4
    an angry disturbance wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To annoy, to disturb, to irritate; to be troublesome to, to make trouble for. transitive

    "Would it bother you if I smoked?"

  2. 2
    cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations wordnet
  3. 3
    To annoy, to disturb, to irritate; to be troublesome to, to make trouble for.; Damn; curse. euphemistic, imperative, transitive
  4. 4
    make confused or perplexed or puzzled wordnet
  5. 5
    To feel care or concern; to burden or inconvenience oneself out of concern. intransitive, reflexive

    "I never bother about such trivialities."

Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    make nervous or agitated wordnet
  2. 7
    To take the trouble, to trouble oneself (to do something). catenative, intransitive

    "Why do I even bother to try?"

  3. 8
    intrude or enter uninvited wordnet
  4. 9
    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."

  5. 10
    take the trouble to do something; concern oneself wordnet
  6. 11
    to cause inconvenience or discomfort to wordnet
Intj
  1. 1
    A mild expression of annoyance. dated, euphemistic

    "[H]e suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said "Bother!" and "Oh blow!" and also "Hang spring-cleaning!" and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat."

Synonyms

All synonyms
annoytroubleannoyannoyanceannoyancedevil

Antonyms

All antonyms
please

Example

More examples

"I will play Sudoku then instead of continuing to bother you."

Etymology

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”).

Related phrases

be botheredbother one's arsefather-bother mergernot a bother on someonespot of botherbe botheredbeing annoyed

More for "bother"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.