[f. the vb.]
1. A troubled state of mind arising from the frets and cares of life; harassing anxiety or solicitude.
1804. W. Wilberforce, in Life (1838), III. 190. Broomfield … is a scene of almost as much bustle as Old Palace-Yard. So much so, that the incessant worry (it is an expressive word) of this house makes me think of quitting it.
1835. Marryat, Jac. Faithf., xxv. It were better to know the worst at once, than to be kept on the worry all your days.
1838. Buckstone, Our Mary Anne, 20. After all the worry of mind I have endured this day.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xxii. Martin felt, from pure fatigue, and heat, and worry, as if he could have fallen on the ground.
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Mrs. Hallib., II. xxvi. (1888), 290. The fact is … I have a good deal of worry upon me.
1871. Smiles, Character, viii. 219. Cheerfulness … enables nature to recruit its strength; whereas worry and discontent debilitate it.
1879. Mrs. Craik, Young Mrs. Jardine, III. ix. 227. It is not work that kills, but ‘worry’; foolish ambitions, unsatisfied cravings, jarring tempers, stinging remorse, or unrepented sin.
transf. 1866. Longf., Flower-de-luce, ii. Thou laughest at the mill, the whir and worry Of spindle and of loom.
b. An instance or case of this; a cause of, or matter for, anxiety; pl. cares, solicitudes.
1808. Sketches of Character, I. 227. You may suppose what a worry Mrs. Mac. was in.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., v. 27. Eliza came in here … in a great worry, crying and taking on.
1861. Flor. Nightingale, Nursing, 66. There is scarcely a greater worry which invalids have to endure than the incurable hopes of their friends.
1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, ix. 76. ‘Delicious spot to come and repose in from the cares and worries of life,’ said Lord Lackington.
1868. Louisa M. Alcott, Little Women, iv. Rich people have about as many worries as poor ones, I think.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 25. To learn to write with the left hand is a labour and a worry.
1912. Times, 1 May, 10/2. His chief worry was that he was unable to be of further use.
2. The act of biting and shaking an animal so as to injure or kill it. (Properly of hounds when they seize their quarry.)
1847. Surtees, Hawbuck Grange, xii. 249–50. The whole pack flew from their noses to the worry, and rolled one over another with their victim into the river.
1859. G. A. Lawrence, Sword & Gown, iii. 28. They will … join in the ‘worry’ as eagerly as the youngest hound.
1882. C. Lloyd Morgan, in Nature, XXVI. 524/2. But no dog could tell his companion of the successful ‘worry’ [sc. of a cat] he had just enjoyed.
1886. Fores’s Sporting Notes, III. 155. And then among the reeds is a rolling over, a confusion, and a worry.
transf. 1901. ‘Linesman,’ Words by Eyewitness (1902), 100. There is a brief and breathless ‘worry’ at the top, and the hill is ours. Few Boers have remained to face the bayonets.
3. Irritation or morbid stimulation (of bodily tissue).
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 750. This form of looseness appears to be due to direct worry of the mucous membrane.
