[f. prec. sb.]
1. intr. To make a fuss; to be in a bustle; to busy oneself restlessly about trifles; to move fussily (about, up and down, etc.)
1792. Elvina, II. 132. The Thorntons were among the first, Sir Gilbert fussing about, with his large white wig and gouty legs, as happy as any of them.
1797. Polwhele, Old Eng. Gentl., 62. She fuss’d to form arrangements with the cook.
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, xv. 78. He had been fussing about it not long before, and dusting the portrait of himself, in his green-and-gold yeomanry uniform, with an old pocket-handkerchief.
1859. Blackw. Mag., April, 456/2. Forth would fuss Achmet, with a huge crowd of staff.
1871. Dixon, Tower, IV. iv. 34. Sir John … fussed and fumed about the Court.
1876. F. E. Trollope, A Charming Fellow, I. xi. 143. Dr. Bodkin had a vague idea that his wife liked to be fussing about in kitchen and store-room, and that she did a great deal more than was necessary, but, ‘then, you see, it amused her.’
1883. J. Parker, Tyne Ch., 11. But the more he was fussed over the more he infidelled.
1887. T. A. Trollope, What I remember, I. xiv. 293. I remember the host fussing in and out of the room during the quarter of an hour before dinner.
1889. The County, vi. in Cornh. Mag., Feb. They may be fussed over as novelties.
transf. 1847. Lytton, Lucretia, 114. By the coal fire, where, through volumes of smoke, fussed and flickered a pretension to flame.
1862. H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, I. 340. Little steam gondolas with onion-funnels, puffing and fussing like busy water-beetles in a microscope,—at a horse-power quite dangerous.
2. trans. To put into a fuss; to agitate, worry; to bother about trifles. Also To fuss up (? dial.): to flatter, treat with fussy politeness.
1816. T. Moore, Mem. (1853), II. 98. Safe arrived,—quite well, but more pulled about, fussed, and bustled than ever.
1820. Clare, Rural Life, 14.
| Now twenty years I’ve pack’d behind me, | |
| Since hope’s deluding tongue inclin’d me | |
| To fuss myself. | |
| Ibid. (1821), The Village Minstrel, and Other Poems, I. 157. The Disappointment. | |
| How could I, when now but a day or two’s gone, | |
| Since he fuss’d me so up in the grove, | |
| And preach’d like a parson as leading me on, | |
| And seem’d like a saint fall’n in love? |
1876. Miss Yonge, Womankind, xxviii. 245. It is generally the safest way to take care to be in time ourselves, but to guard against fussing other people, and indeed to keep our minds as calm as possible and not trouble ourselves about the arrangements of those not under our control.
1885. Lucy B. Walford, Nan, etc., II. 163. The going in and out … always fusses me.
Hence Fussed ppl. a., in a fuss; agitated, disconcerted; Fussing vbl. sb. and ppl. a. Also Fussation [see -ATION], the action, habit, or practice of fussing; Fusser [see -ER1], one who fusses.
1775. Mad. D’Arblay, Lett., Nov., in Early Diary. She dispelled all sort of ceremony, distance, or fussation.
1826. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. II. (1863), 317. She was addicted to a fussing and fidgetty neatness.
1832. Scott, St. Ronan’s, Introd. 9. The character of the traveller, meddling, self-important, and what the ladies call fussing.
1847. Bushnell, Chr. Nurt., II. i. (1861), 245. His obstinacy is but the fussing of his weakness.
1860. Miss Yonge, Stokesley Secret, v. (1880), 228. David is taking up his slate, and looking a little fussed because there is a scratch in the corner.
1869. Lady Barker, Station Life N. Zealand, xv. (1874), 108. After I have finished all my little fussings about the house, I join F—-.
1884. A. A. Putnam, 10 Yrs. Police Judge, xv. 161. Every witness, affiant, loafer, fusser, and teazer of this jurisdictional region.
1890. Pall Mall G., 2 May, 2/3. The Standard with its fellow fussers and fogies abroad sits down and waits the event.
1895. World, Christm. No. 61/2. That idiotic fussation … all the excitement, and all those people staring at her.
