[f. WORRY v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of strangling or of biting and tearing by the throat.
In quot. 1621 ‘worrien’ is perhaps this word, altered for the rhyme.
1483. Cath. Angl., 414/2. Werying, jugulamen,… suffocamen.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 422. The moste importune barkynge of Dogges, and werieng one an other.
1621. Brathwait, Nat. Embassie, etc., 194. How duely I did keepe My woollie store (as I had care) from worrien, Scab, sought, the rot or any kind of murren.
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xii. Then the astounded Tom heard the worrying of a terrier, and the squeak of a dying rat.
2. The action of harassing, pestering or distressing.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, lix. Worryings and quellings of young children.
1862. Sat. Rev., 8 Feb., 157. Amidst all this worrying and being worried.
1864. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XVI. vii. (1872), VI. 218. Such worryings (ces sortes de compromis) leave their mark on a man.
