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Annoy vs Bother - What's the difference?

annoy | bother | Synonyms |

Bother is a synonym of annoy.



In transitive terms the difference between annoy and bother

is that annoy is to molest; to harm; to injure while bother is to annoy, to disturb, to irritate.

In intransitive terms the difference between annoy and bother

is that annoy is to do something to upset or anger someone; to be troublesome while bother is to do something which is of negligible inconvenience.

As an interjection bother is

a mild expression of annoyance.

annoy

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To disturb or irritate, especially by continued or repeated acts; to bother with unpleasant deeds.
  • * Prior
  • Say, what can more our tortured souls annoy / Than to behold, admire, and lose our joy?
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=No hiding place
  • , date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.}}
  • To do something to upset or anger someone; to be troublesome.
  • To molest; to harm; to injure.
  • to annoy an army by impeding its march, or by a cannonade
  • * Evelyn
  • tapers put into lanterns or sconces of several-coloured, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them

    Synonyms

    * (to disturb or irritate) bother, bug, hassle, irritate, pester, nag, irk * See also

    Antonyms

    * please

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A feeling of discomfort or vexation caused by what one dislikes.
  • * 1532 (first printing), Geoffrey Chaucer, The Romaunt of the Rose :
  • I merveyle me wonder faste / How ony man may lyve or laste / In such peyne and such brennyng, / [...] In such annoy contynuely.
  • * 1870 , Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sciety and Solitude :
  • if she says he was defeated, why he had better a great deal have been defeated, than give her a moment's annoy .
  • That which causes such a feeling.
  • * 1594 , William Shakespeare, King Rchard III , IV.2:
  • Sleepe in Peace, and wake in Ioy, / Good Angels guard thee from the Boares annoy [...].
  • * 1872 , Robert Browning, "Fifine at the Fair, V:
  • The home far and away, the distance where lives joy, / The cure, at once and ever, of world and world's annoy [...].

    Synonyms

    * (both senses) annoyance

    References

    * *

    Anagrams

    *

    bother

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To annoy, to disturb, to irritate.
  • Would it bother you if I smoked?
  • To feel care or anxiety; to make or take trouble; to be troublesome.
  • Why do I even bother to try?
  • * Henry James
  • without bothering about it
  • To do something which is of negligible inconvenience.
  • You didn't even bother to close the door.

    Synonyms

    * (annoy, disturb ): annoy, disturb, irritate, put out, vex * See also

    Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive'' or the ''gerund (-ing) . See

    Noun

  • Fuss, ado.
  • There was a bit of bother at the hairdresser's when they couldn't find my appointment in the book.
  • * '>citation
  • Trouble, inconvenience.
  • Yes, I can do that for you - it's no bother .

    Interjection

  • A mild expression of annoyance.
  • * 1926 , A A Milne, Winnie the Pooh'', Methuen & Co., Ltd., Chapter 2 ''...in which Pooh goes visiting and gets into a tight place :
  • "Oh, help!" said Pooh. "I'd better go back."
    "Oh, bother !" said Pooh. "I shall have to go on."
    "I can't do either!" said Pooh. "Oh, help and bother !"

    Synonyms

    * blast, dang (US ), darn