bother
noun/ˈbɒðə(r)/
/ˈbɑːðər/
- [uncountable] trouble or difficulty
- You seem to have got yourself into a spot of bother.
- I don't want to put you to any bother (= cause you any trouble).
- Don't go to the bother of tidying up on my account (= don't make the effort to do it).
- ‘Thanks for your help!’ ‘It was no bother.’
- Call them and save yourself the bother of going round.
- I don’t mind looking after the children; they aren’t any bother.
- She’s been having a bit of bother with her car.
Extra ExamplesTopics Difficulty and failurec2- He's got a spot of bother with his eyes.
- He's having a little bother with his computer.
- I don't mind looking after your dog—it's no bother to me.
- I had a little bother finding your house.
- I wouldn't go to the bother of making the cakes myself.
- I'd love to come and stay with you, but I don't want to put you to any bother.
- It was no bother having the children to stay.
- The children were no bother.
- He's in a bit of bother with the police.
- We found the hotel without any bother.
- Your little boy didn't give me any bother.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + bother- have
- cause
- give somebody
- …
- without any bother
- bother to
- bother with
- …
- a bit of bother
- a little bother
- a lot of bother
- …
- a bother[singular] an annoying situation, thing or person synonym nuisance
- I hope I haven't been a bother.
Word Originlate 17th cent. (as a noun in the dialect sense ‘noise, chatter’): of Anglo-Irish origin; probably related to Irish bodhaire ‘noise’, bodhraim ‘deafen, annoy’. The verb (originally dialect) meant ‘confuse with noise’ in the early 18th cent.
Check pronunciation:
bother