bothering 1 of 2

noun

as in harassment
the act of making unwelcome intrusions upon another one more bothering, and I'm going to kick you out of here

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bothering

2 of 2

verb

present participle of bother
1
as in worrying
to thrust oneself upon (another) without invitation I am never going to get this work done if people don't stop wandering into the room and bothering me

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in bugging
to disturb the peace of mind of (someone) especially by repeated disagreeable acts it bothers me when obviously sick people go to movies and spend the whole time coughing and sneezing

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3
as in fearing
to experience concern or anxiety just get the basic concept right and don't bother about the details

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4
as in distracting
to trouble the mind of; to make uneasy the boss's cryptic message about changes to the company bothered me

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of bothering
Verb
Wasps are generally more interested in building their colony and finding food than in bothering people. — Jessica Safavimehr, Southern Living, 17 July 2026 But after going ahead, England manager Thomas Tuchel tried to shut the back door by throwing on countless defenders and not bothering to attack Argentina anymore. — Aleks Klosok, CNN Money, 15 July 2026 As early as 2010, TV stations noticed people were sending short videos shot vertically, making some wonder why people weren’t bothering to rotate their phones. — Hernan Lopez, Variety, 10 July 2026 The only thing missing was a set of drums, and a place to bang on them without bothering anyone. — Simon Vozick-Levinson, Rolling Stone, 9 July 2026 Travis was snapped having a blast bothering Jason as the duo attended a match between Jupiter Links GC and The Bay Golf Club at SoFi Center on March 3. — Stephanie Sengwe, PEOPLE, 2 July 2026 For now, the Royals hope to figure out exactly what’s bothering him. — Kansas City Star, 1 July 2026 That shift may help explain why some couples notice their partner’s scent bothering them more during periods of conflict. — Lauren Jarvis-Gibson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 23 June 2026 The chest pain that had been bothering her finally let up. — Tyler Quattrin, Twin Cities, 19 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bothering
  1. harassment
  2. worrying
  3. bugging
  4. distracting
  5. disturbance
  6. annoying
  7. irritating
  8. concerning
Noun
  • This strange and layered case is the subject of the documentary, A Toxic Love Story, out July 22 on Netflix, which recounts the events that led to uncovering Ian and Angela as the true sources of the harassment.
    — Olivia B. Waxman, Time, 22 July 2026
  • Abarca was further charged with two counts of harassment by telecommunications device in Hutchinson, Kansas municipal court in December, according to court records.
    — Ilana Arougheti July 21, Kansas City Star, 21 July 2026
Definition of harassment
Verb
  • Jensen Huang is urging Washington to stop worrying about China’s open-source AI just as an all-out panic has broken out over the highly capable, low-cost models that can increasingly compete with the most advanced products by OpenAI and Anthropic.
    — Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, Fortune, 22 July 2026
  • The ceiling gets reviewed regularly and removed once the Bank stops worrying about what a fast-growing coin would do to bank credit.
    — Zennon Kapron, Forbes.com, 21 July 2026
Definition of worrying
Verb
  • The necessity of the trip at all is what's been bugging me.
    — Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 12 June 2026
  • His doctor had been bugging him for years to get a colonoscopy because of his age, but Driggers declined.
    — The Washington Post, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 June 2026
Definition of bugging
Verb
  • Freeland resembles Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, drawing back the curtain that hides the smoke machine when the Wizard of Oz is not a wizard at all, but a carnival illusionist distracting the population.
    — Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Fortune, 22 July 2026
  • Depicting that dress faithfully would likely be distracting to a modern audience and leave the film unmarketable.
    — Harrison Jacobs, ARTnews.com, 22 July 2026
Definition of distracting
Noun
  • Cherry residents say developers and city leaders must do a better job protecting neighborhoods from preventable disturbances during big projects.
    — Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 23 July 2026
  • By contrast, ecological systems are complexly interconnected, meaning that when one element is disturbed, all the other components linked to it are affected, too, spreading the disturbance throughout the system.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 23 July 2026
Definition of disturbance
Verb
  • Of course, this would depend on whether the managers choose to pick their strongest teams in what for some is a meaningless, even annoying extra fixture, for squads who just want to go home.
    — Eduardo Tansley, New York Times, 18 July 2026
  • The Manchester City star is fully back to his 2024 Ballon d’Or-winning self, marshaling the middle, providing amazing connection between the front and back and even annoying the French players with some gamesmanship near the end.
    — Patrick Sung Cuadrado, CNN Money, 14 July 2026
Definition of annoying
Verb
  • Food often acts as a buffer, or coat, on the stomach, preventing supplements from irritating the stomach lining.
    — Emmanuella Ogbonna, Health, 18 July 2026
  • And these lively, sometimes irritating, often messy, but always essential noises are the product of our species connecting and caring for one another.
    — Dana Suskind, Time, 14 July 2026
Definition of irritating
Verb
  • This is especially concerning, considering teenagers are at a time in life when their bodies are changing constantly and rapidly, Mann said.
    — Avni Trivedi, CNN Money, 21 July 2026
  • But new data points to a concerning trend in which AI is damaging human connection, because people don’t interact with colleagues as much, rely on coworkers or reinforce relationships in the work process.
    — Tracy Brower, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026
Definition of concerning

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Cite this Entry

“Bothering.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bothering. Accessed 28 Jul. 2026.

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