v., wor·ried (wûr'ēd, wŭr'-), wor·ry·ing, wor·ries (wûr'ēz, wŭr'-). v.intr.
- To feel uneasy or concerned about something; be troubled. See synonyms at brood.
- To pull or tear at something with or as if with the teeth.
- To proceed doggedly in the face of difficulty or hardship; struggle: worried along at the problem.
- To cause to feel anxious, distressed, or troubled. See synonyms at trouble.
- To bother or annoy, as with petty complaints.
- To seize with the teeth and shake or tug at repeatedly: a dog worrying a bone.
- To attack roughly and repeatedly; harass.
- To touch, move, or handle idly; toy with: worrying the loose tooth with his tongue.
- The act of worrying or the condition of being worried; persistent mental uneasiness. See synonyms at anxiety.
- A source of nagging concern or uneasiness.
not to worry Informal.
- There is nothing to worry about; there is no need to be concerned: “But not to worry: it all…falls into place in the book's second half, where the language is plainer” (Hallowell Bowser).
[Middle English werien, worien, to strangle, from Old English wyrgan.]
worrier wor'ri·er n.WORD HISTORY Worrying may shorten one's life, but not as quickly as it once did. The ancestor of our word, Old English wyrgan, meant “to strangle.” Its Middle English descendant, worien, kept this sense and developed the new sense “to grasp by the throat with the teeth and lacerate” or “to kill or injure by biting and shaking.” This is the way wolves or dogs might attack sheep, for example. In the 16th century worry began to be used in the sense “to harass, as by rough treatment or attack,” or “to assault verbally,” and in the 17th century the word took on the sense “to bother, distress, or persecute.” It was a small step from this sense to the main modern senses “to cause to feel anxious or distressed” and “to feel troubled or uneasy,” first recorded in the 19th century.
