Meaning of worry in English

worry

verb

/ˈwʌr.i/ us

/ˈwɝː.i/

worry verb (PROBLEM)

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A2 [ I ]

to think about problems or unpleasant things that might happen in a way that makes you feel unhappy and frightened:

Try not to worry - there's nothing you can do to change the situation.

don't worry Don't worry, she'll be all right.

worry about It's silly worrying about things which are outside your control.

[ + (that) ] She's worried (that) she might not be able to find another job.

B2 [ T ]

to make someone feel unhappy and frightened because of problems or unpleasant things that might happen:

You worried your mother by not writing.

[ + that ] It worries me that he hasn't phoned yet.

The continued lack of rain is starting to worry people.

More examplesFewer examples

Don't worry about a thing. I'll take care of it all.
My elderly mother worries that she's a burden to me.
Sometimes I worry about the future.
She'd worried quite needlessly about whether there would be enough food.
You needn't worry - I'm not going to mention it to anyone.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Anxious and worried

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Causing anxiety and worry

worry verb (ANIMAL)

[ T ]

If a dog worries another animal, it chases and frightens it and might also bite it:

Any dog caught worrying sheep in these fields will be shot.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Animal (non-human) behaviour

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Pursuing

Idioms

don't worry your pretty little head

not to worry

Phrasal verb

worry at something

worry

noun

/ˈwʌr.i/ us

/ˈwɝː.i/

B1 [ C ]

a problem that makes you feel unhappy and frightened:

health/financial worries

Keeping warm in the winter is a major worry for many old people.

B2 [ C or U ]

a feeling of being unhappy and frightened about something:

Unemployment, bad health - all sorts of things can be a cause of worry.

It was clear that Anna had no worries about her husband's attempts to flirt.

Synonyms

alarm  (WORRY)
concern  (WORRY)
consternation
distress 
preoccupation

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She was nearly demented with worry when her son didn't come home.
I wanted to make amends for the worry I've caused you.
Where on earth have you been? We've been frantic with worry.
Some people glide effortlessly through life with no real worries.
That's my kind of holiday - no phone, no TV and no worries.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Anxiety and worry - general words

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Difficult things and people

no worries

used to tell someone that a situation is acceptable, even if something has gone wrong:

"Oh, I'm sorry I got your name wrong!" "No worries."

(Definition of worry from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

worry | American Dictionary

worry

verb [ I/T ]

/ˈwɜr·i, ˈwʌr·i/

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to think about problems or unpleasant things that make you anxious, or to make someone feel anxious:

[ I ] If you get a monthly train ticket, you won’t have to worry about buying a ticket every day.

[ I ] My mother always worries about me when I don’t come home by midnight.

[ I ] "Will you be all right walking home?" "Don’t worry – I’ll be fine."

[ + that clause ] She worried that she might not be able to find another job.

[ T ] A lot of things worried him about his roommate.

worry

noun [ C/U ] us

/ˈwɜr·i, ˈwʌr·i/

[ C ] Fortunately, right now we don’t have any worries about money.

(Definition of worry from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of worry

worry

I keep telling myself not to worry or to take any burden to them.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In designing tasks, researchers need to worry about establishing reliable and valid measures.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We use an equivalence on trees instead of worrying about representation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Poverty is worrying about money all the time.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

But as soon as you do this, you will start to worry about other meanings, even in single words.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They loudly poured out their worries, calling on their male relatives to discipline their sons.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They also worried that the addition of the working poor would expand by millions the numbers of those eligible for assistance.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Once we did not much worry about what the public brought with them to exhibits, but that is not the case anymore.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This would mean that we would not have to worry about the extremes of this distribution.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Nineteenth-century commentators worried that museum-goers would go too far toward one or the other of these extremes.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Several relatives were worried by their poor understanding of the complexities of the local authority's policies and practices in respect to self-funded admissions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Lending to a wife probably did not happen very often because it was too risky for lenders worried about delays in repayment.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Instead, education is needed so that public fears track the real risks, and people worry about only what they ought to be worried about.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, there are other worries in the same vicinity.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

She was proud, astute, and worried about her husband's welfare.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of worry

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with worry

worry

These are words often used in combination with worry.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

big worry

That is the big worry.

From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English

cause worry

Pain in the neck or low back can influence functional capacity and cause worry, anxiety, and depression.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

constant worry

The constant worry over worker quality and efficiency in the 1920s reflected this syndrome.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with worry

What is the pronunciation of worry?

A2,B2,B1,B2

Translations of worry

in Chinese (Traditional)

問題, 擔心, 憂慮…

in Chinese (Simplified)

问题, 担心, 忧虑…

in Spanish

preocuparse, preocupar, inquietar…

in Portuguese

preocupar-se, afligir-se, perseguir…

in more languages

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काळजी करणे, चिंता करणे, काळजी वाटणे…

（人）が心配する, （人）を心配させる, 不安…

kaygılanmak, endişelenmek, merak etmek…

s’inquiéter, se faire du souci, souci [masculine]…

patir, preocupar-se, preocupar…

(zich) ongerust maken, lastig vallen, de tanden zetten in…

உங்களை மகிழ்ச்சியற்றதாகவும் பயமாகவும் உணரக்கூடிய வகையில் நடக்கக்கூடிய பிரச்சினைகள் அல்லது விரும்பத்தகாத விஷயங்களைப் பற்றி சிந்திக்க, நடக்கக்கூடிய பிரச்சினைகள் அல்லது விரும்பத்தகாத விஷயங்கள் காரணமாக யாராவது மகிழ்ச்சியற்றவர்களாகவும் பயமாகவும் உணர, உங்களுக்கு மகிழ்ச்சியற்றதாகவும் பயமாகவும் இருக்கும் ஒரு சிக்கல்…

चिंता करना, चिंता में होना, (किसी समस्या की) चिंता…

ચિંતા, ઉપાધિ, કોઈ સમસ્યા કે દુ:ખદાયક બાબત બનવાની સંભાવનાને કારણે કોઈકનું દુ:ખી કે ભયભીત થવું.…

bekymre sig, være bekymret, forstyrre…

oroa [sig], ansätta, störa…

merisaukan, mengganggu, mengetap gigi…

(sich) ängstigen, zusetzen, bedrängen…