ppl. a. [f. WORRY v. + -ED.] In senses of the vb.: Killed or mangled by biting, etc.; maltreated, harassed; troubled or distressed in mind.
1559. Bp. Cox, in Strype, Ann. Ref. (1709), I. vi. 99. God was mightily angred with his People, because they offered unto God the Blind, Lame and worried Sacrifice.
1624. Quarles, Sion’s Elegies, III. ii. Heauen’s souldiers doe beleager My worried soule. Ibid. (1646), Judgem. & Mercy, Wks. (Grosart), I. 115/2. Can poore affrighted Lambs wanton, and frisk upon the pleasant plains, when as their worried Mothers tremble at the Quest of every Curre?
a. 1699. J. Beaumont, Psyche, XIV. lxx. His worryed limbs forthwith the Soldiers stretch To fit Him to His wide tormenting Tree. Ibid., XIX. xxxviii. Must thou Sail from thy quiet Home, and yield to be The worried Slave of all the Winds that blow.
1800. Hurdis, Fav. Village, 111. To the branch Which midway meets him in his worried flight.
1825. C. K. Sharpe, Corr. (1888), II. 347. I am now better—but a good deal shaken, as they say of half-worried kittens.
1864. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., IV. 194. A fagged, worried, hard-working, dusty-footed labouring man.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. v. ‘I don’t mean that,’ said Mrs. Boffin, with a worried look.
1887. Miss Braddon, Like & Unlike, xxxviii. ‘You look ill and worried,’ said the Colonel.
1903. Bridges, Wintry Delights, 248. And ’tis a far escape from wires, wheels and penny papers And the worried congestion of our Victorian era.
