worrying

1. 1
   adjective

   Causing worry or anxiety, and likely to make someone feel uneasy.

   The sudden drop in sales was worrying for the small business.

   Doctors found a worrying pattern in the patient's test results.

   Similardisquieting

   Oppositereassuring, comforting, encouraging

   Note

   The adjective that has broken away from the verb. It takes degree, so news can be more worrying, most worrying, or simply very worrying, which a verb form cannot be. That is the quickest way to tell it from the verb form: a worrying moment describes its effect on whoever watches, while a dog worrying sheep is doing something to them. Disquieting is a close synonym.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of worry.

   The collie kept worrying the sheep until the farmer intervened.

   Worrying about the future kept her awake all night.

   Note

   One spelling carries two grammars inherited from the verb. Used intransitively, it takes about and describes the worrier: she lay awake worrying about the future. Used transitively, it takes a direct object, and the worrying is done to something: a dog worrying sheep, a child worrying a loose tooth. The transitive pattern keeps the physical meanings of seizing, shaking and fiddling alive.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act of harassing or repeatedly attacking a person or animal.

   Repeated worrying of the flock forced the shepherd to keep the dogs penned.

   The new law imposes heavy penalties for the worrying of cattle.

   Similarharassment, harrying

   Note

   A noun with its own pedigree, going back to Middle English werying. It can be counted, so there can be several worryings. Charles Dickens's Dombey and Son has a hard-eyed tyrant relishing the "worryings and quellings of young children." The sense is harassment, not anxiety: it is the nagging done to someone, not the fretting felt inside.

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