Word.ws English Dictionary

fuss

UK/fʌs/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/fʊs/

fuss noun: excessive activity, worry, bother, or talk about something.

Noun

fuss (countable and uncountable, plural fusses)

  1. Excessive activity, worry, bother, or talk about something.
    • They made a big fuss about the wedding plans.
    • What's all the fuss about?
  2. A complaint or noise; a scene.
    • If you make enough of a fuss about the problem, maybe they'll fix it for you.
  3. An exhibition of affection or admiration.
    • They made a great fuss over the new baby.

Verb

fuss (third-person singular simple present fusses, present participle fussing, simple past and past participle fussed)

  1. (intransitive) To be very worried or excited about something, often too much.
    • His grandmother will never quit fussing over his vegetarianism.
    • Dear reader, spare me. I don't hate men, I love them; I eat 'em for breakfast. But it seems to me that fussing about masculinity is intimately related to homophobia.1984 December 29, Duncan Mitchel, “The Cult of Gay Machismo”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 25, page 9
  2. (intransitive) To fiddle; fidget; wiggle, or adjust
    • Quit fussing with your hair. It looks fine.
  3. (transitive) To disturb (a person)
  4. (US, especially, intransitive) To cry or be ill-humoured.
  5. (intransitive) To show affection for, especially animals.
  6. (transitive) To pet.
    • He fussed the cat.

fuss meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

fuss in Tamil

அமளி, தேவையற்ற பரபரப்பு, பரபரப்பு, வெற்றார்ப்பரிப்பு, வெற்று ஆர்ப்பரிப்பு

fuss in Marathi

fuss, outcry
त्रागा trāgā

fuss in Urdu

شغب

fuss in Bengali

অহেতুক উত্তেজনা, গোলমাল, তুচ্ছ বিষয় নিয়ে বাড়াবাড়ি
More languagesFewer languages
fuss in Malayalam
ബഹളം, വെറുതെ ബഹളം കൂട്ടുന്നയാൾ, തിരക്ക്, ഒച്ചപ്പാട്
fuss in Kannada
ಗಲಭೆ galabhe

Examples of fuss in a sentence

  • Sickness did not last above a ten days; my poor wife zealously assiduous, and with a minimum of fuss or noise.1866 (date written), Thomas Carlyle, “Jane Welsh Carlyle”, in James Anthony Froude, editor, Reminiscences, volume II, London: Longmans...
  • She's set her heart on that tennis bloke[…]whom the papers are making such a fuss about.”1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:
  • But in the reader comments section beneath the FT piece, many couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.2018 January 25, Amelia Gentleman, “Men-only clubs and menace: how the establishment maintains male power”, in the Guardian:

All 40 example sentences with fuss

Synonyms of fuss

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of fuss

Forms of fuss

Noun
pluralfusses
Verb
third-person singular presentfusses
present participlefussing
past participlefussed
pastfussed

Past tense of fuss: fussed

Plural of fuss: fusses

Origin of fuss

Of unknown origin. Perhaps from Danish fjas (“nonsense”), from Middle Low German (compare German faseln (“to maunder, talk nonsense”)). Compare also fouse (“to hasten, rush, tumble, disarrange”).

Words formed from fuss

Phrases with fuss

Words that rhyme with fuss

11 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about fuss

What does fuss mean?
Fuss means excessive activity, worry, bother, or talk about something.
What is fuss in Tamil?
Fuss in Tamil is அமளி, தேவையற்ற பரபரப்பு, பரபரப்பு. See Fuss meaning in Tamil.
How do you use fuss in a sentence?
Sickness did not last above a ten days; my poor wife zealously assiduous, and with a minimum of fuss or noise.
What part of speech is fuss?
Fuss can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce fuss?
Fuss is pronounced /fʌs/ (UK).
What is the plural of fuss?
The plural of fuss is fusses.

Words near fuss in the dictionary

  1. fusospirillosis
  2. fusospirochetal
  3. fusospirochetal gingivitis
  4. fusospirochete
  5. fusospirochetes
  6. fuss
  7. fuss and feathers
  8. fuss around
  9. fuss over
  10. fuss-budget
  11. fuss-budgetry

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fuss (page history and authors); fuss (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); त्रागा (Marathi) (page history and authors); fuss (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Fuss (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fuss (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಗಲಭೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fuss.ogg.

Cite this entry: “fuss.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fuss. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.