bother

Verb

bother (third-person singular simple present bothers, present participle bothering, simple past and past participle bothered)

1. (transitive) To annoy, to disturb, to irritate; to be troublesome to, to make trouble for.
   • Would it bother you if I smoked?

   Synonyms:

   annoy, disturb, inconvenience, irritate, put out, vex, aggravate, nettle, rankle, ruffle

   1. (euphemistic, imperative, transitive) Damn; curse.
2. (intransitive, reflexive) To feel care or concern; to burden or inconvenience oneself out of concern.
   • I never bother about such trivialities.
   • I wouldn't bother with an umbrella if I were you.

   Synonyms:

   care, mind, becare, concern oneself, heed, reck, trouble oneself, worry

3. (catenative, intransitive) To take the trouble, to trouble oneself (to do something).
   • Why do I even bother to try?

   Synonyms:

   go to the trouble, take the trouble

   1. (catenative, intransitive) To do something which is of negligible inconvenience.
      • You didn’t even bother to close the door.

Noun

bother (countable and uncountable, plural bothers)

1. Fuss, ado.
   • There was a bit of bother at the hairdresser's when they couldn't find my appointment in the book.
   • It was a 15-minute return trip to walk back home to pick up my device, but I weighed it up and decided that it wasn’t worth the bother.2015 January 18, Monty Munford, “What’s the point of carrying a mobile phone nowadays?”, in The Daily Telegraph

   Synonyms:

   ado, argy-bargy, bangarang, bobbery, brouhaha, bunfight, bustle, bust-up, chaos, ferment

2. Trouble, inconvenience.
   • Yes, I can do that for you—it’s no bother.

   Synonyms:

   annoyance, faff, grievance, hassle, inconvenience, irritation, nuisance, palaver, peeve, plague

Interjection

1. (dated, euphemistic) A mild expression of annoyance.
   • She flung off her sealskin paletot and the beautiful felt hat, not heeding that they rolled off the untidy bed upon the floor. / “Sarah,” whispered Mrs. Malone, “what you goin’ to do? Look at your elegant clothes on the floor.” / “Oh, bother!” retorted Sarah.1894, Lucy C[ecil] Lillie, chapter XXVI, in A Family Dilemma: A Story for Girls, Philadelphia, Pa.: Porter & Coates, →OCLC, page 171
   • [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.1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, London: Wordsworth Classics, published 1993, page 11

   Synonyms:

   botheration, blast, dang, darn, drat, phooey, fiddlesticks