Worrying

//ˈwʌɹ.i.ɪŋ// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of worrying or harassing somebody.

    "There is a snaky gleam in her hard grey eye, as of anticipated rounds of buttered toast, relays of hot chops, worryings and quellings of young children, sharp snappings at poor Berry, and all the other delights of her Ogress's castle."

  2. 2
    the act of moving something by repeated tugs or pushes wordnet
  3. 3
    the act of harassing someone wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of worry form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
  1. 1
    Inducing worry.

    "Moldova did give England's under-employed keeper Joe Hart a worrying moment when Igor Armas sent a free header wide but otherwise it was an easy night."

Adjective
  1. 1
    causing distress or worry or anxiety wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
disquietingdistressfulaggravatingalarmingannoyingbadgering

Example

More examples

"There is no sense in your worrying about your health so much."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From worry + -ing.

Etymology 2

From Middle English werying, equivalent to worry + -ing.

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