bothering

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of bother.

   The children were bothering the cat all afternoon.

   Bothering with every minor detail only slowed the project down.

   Note

   One spelling does two grammatical jobs. With a form of be it makes the progressive (they were bothering the cat). On its own it heads a verbal noun (bothering with details). It also carries the verb's catenative use before an infinitive, as in he isn't bothering to reply, where it means taking the trouble rather than causing it. The same spelling serves as the adjective for annoying and a noun with a plural.

   She isn't even bothering to answer his messages.

   Why are you bothering with the old printer?

2. 2
   adjective

   Annoying or irritating; tending to trouble or disturb someone.

   His bothering tendency to interrupt made the meetings drag on.

   There was something faintly bothering about the way he kept staring.

   Similarannoying, irritating, troubling, disturbing, irksome

   Oppositepleasant, soothing

   Note

   An adjective that keeps the verb's sense of something that troubles a person. Christina Stead's The Little Hotel (1973) has "a bothering experience," an encounter that left a lasting unease. It is gradable, taking more bothering and most bothering rather than an -er ending, and it sits naturally before a noun or after verbs like be and seem.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act of troubling, disturbing, or annoying another person.

   The endless bothering from reporters wore the family down.

   He finally lost his patience after an hour of relentless bothering.

   Similarharassment, pestering, badgering, hounding

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