worry

Less common meanings

5. 5
   pesterverbtransitive

   To harass or pester; to irritate and cause distress to someone.

   The reporters worried the official with questions he refused to answer.

   For weeks the landlord would worry his tenants, calling at all hours to complain about noise nobody else could hear.

   UsageOften worry someone with questions or demands.

   Similarharass, pester, badger, hound, plague

   Note

   The pressure in this sense comes from outside, and it keeps coming: advisors, reporters or bullies wearing someone down. A useful construction is worry someone into something, as in the President was worried into military action, where the harassment ends with the person giving way. That pattern sets it apart from the "make anxious" meaning, which describes a state of mind rather than a campaign.

6. 6
   fiddle withverbtransitive

   To touch, pick at, or fiddle with something repeatedly.

   Waiting outside the courtroom, he sat on a bench and worried the ring on his finger.

   Anxious passengers often worry the straps of their bags without noticing.

   UsageTakes the small thing as object, or at: worry a ring, worry at a loose thread.

   Similarfiddle, twiddle, fidget

   Note

   Here the dog's grip has turned into a nervous habit of the hands. The objects are small things kept within reach: a beard in Sydney J. Bounds's The Robot Brains, loose change in David Sedaris's Naked, prayer beads in Masha Hamilton's Staircase of a Thousand Steps. The action is restless and half-conscious, so it keeps company with pacing and lip-biting. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Sydney J. Bounds's The Robot Brains depicts beard-fiddling alongside pacing. en.wiktionary.org
   • David Sedaris's Naked describes repeatedly fiddling with change alongside lip-biting. dl.ftveti.edu.et
   • Masha Hamilton's Staircase of a Thousand Steps includes the action of worrying prayer beads. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   bite and shakeverbtransitive

   To seize and shake by the throat, as a dog or wolf does to its prey.

   Before the farmer could reach the coop, the fox had seized a hen by the neck and begun to worry it.

   The terrier worried the rat with a series of violent shakes.

   Similarsavage, maul, attack

   Note

   The oldest picture in the word: Old English wyrgan meant "to choke, strangle," from a root meaning "bind, squeeze," and German würgen is its cousin. Its natural subject is a dog and its natural object is sheep or other livestock, as in your dog's been worrying sheep again. The nursery rhyme The House that Jack Built has the dog that worried the cat. The anxious senses keep the grip and lose the teeth. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Worry descends from Old English wyrgan, meaning to strangle. en.wiktionary.org
   • The etymological root means bind or squeeze. en.wiktionary.org
   • German würgen is cognate with worry. en.wiktionary.org
   • The House that Jack Built contains the dog that worried the cat. gutenberg.org
8. 8
   verbobsoleteScotlandtransitive

   To kill by strangling; to choke the life out of someone.

   We read (Law's Memor. Pref. lix.) that "one John Brugh, a notorious warlock (wizard) in the parochin of Fossoquhy, by the space of thirty-six years, was worried at a stake and burned, 1643."

   1891, “Journal of Jurisprudence and Scottish Law Magazine”, in Execution of the Judgment of Death

   Note

   An obsolete Scottish use that keeps the root meaning bare: to strangle. The Journal of Jurisprudence and Scottish Law Magazine (1891) quotes an older record of a warlock who in 1643 "was worried at a stake and burned", meaning strangled first, then burned. Read it this way in old Scottish texts, but do not use it now. The word's history belongs with the dog's throat-grip. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

   • Worry had an obsolete Scottish sense meaning to strangle. en.wiktionary.org
   • Strangling was a meaning of the word's Old English ancestor. en.wiktionary.org
   • The named journal's 1891 quotation cites an older record. en.wiktionary.org
   • The quotation describes a warlock's execution in 1643 and contains the exact quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
   • Worrying at a stake meant killing before burning the body. gutenberg.org
   • The same word also denotes a dog's seizure or shaking of the throat. en.wiktionary.org