worry

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To feel anxious or uneasy about something that might happen.

   I worry about my job.

2. 2
   noun

   A feeling of anxiety, or something that causes it.

   My worry about being fired started to stress me out.

3. 3
   verb

   To make someone feel anxious or upset.

   Your tone of voice worries me.

4. 4
   verb

   (Of a dog or wolf) to seize and shake an animal by the throat.

   Your dog's been worrying sheep again.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Worry meant “to strangle” in Old English. Medieval senses included choking, seizing and tearing by the throat, and swallowing greedily; from these came “to harass” in the 16th century, “to annoy or disturb” in the late 17th, and eventually “to cause anxiety.” Its intransitive sense “to feel anxious” is first recorded in the 1860s.

From Middle English worien, werien, wirien, wirwen, wyryȝen (“to choke, strangle”), from Old English wyrġan, from Proto-Germanic *wurgijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *werǵʰ- (“bind, squeeze”). Cognate with Dutch worgen, wurgen, German würgen. Compare Latin urgere (“to press, push”), Sanskrit वृहति (vṛhati, “to tear out, pluck”), Lithuanian ver̃žti (“to string; squeeze”), Russian (poetic) отверза́ть (otverzátʹ, “to open”, literally “to untie”). Related to wring.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary