different between bother vs exasperate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Scots bauther, bather (“to bother”). Origin unknown. Perhaps related to Scots pother (“to make a stir or commotion, bustle”), also of unknown origin. Compare English pother (“to poke, prod”), variant of potter (“to poke”). More at potter. Perhaps related to Irish bodhaire (“noise”), Irish bodhraim (“to deafen, annoy”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: b??-th?r, IPA^(key): /?b?ð??/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): [?b?ð?(?)]
• (UK) IPA^(key): [?b?ð?(?)]
  • Rhymes: -?ð?(r)
• (US) IPA^(key): [?b?ð?]

Verb

bother (third-person singular simple present bothers, present participle bothering, simple past and past participle bothered)

1. (transitive) To annoy, to disturb, to irritate.

2. (intransitive) To feel care or anxiety; to make or take trouble; to be troublesome.
3. (intransitive) To do something which is of negligible inconvenience.

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive or the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Synonyms

• (annoy): annoy, disturb, irritate, put out, vex; see also Thesaurus:annoy
• (make or take trouble): care, mind; see also Thesaurus:care

Derived terms

• bebother

Translations

References

Noun

bother (countable and uncountable, plural bothers)

1. Fuss, ado.

   There was a bit of bother at the hairdresser's when they couldn't find my appointment in the book.
2. Trouble, inconvenience.

   Yes, I can do that for you - it's no bother.

Synonyms

• (fuss, ado): See also Thesaurus:commotion
• (trouble, inconvenience): See also Thesaurus:nuisance

Derived terms

• bothersome
• spot of bother

Translations

Interjection

bother!

1. A mild expression of annoyance.
   • 1926, A A Milne, Winnie the Pooh, Methuen & Co., Ltd., Chapter 2 ...in which Pooh goes visiting and gets into a tight place:

     "Oh, help!" said Pooh. "I'd better go back."

     "Oh, bother!" said Pooh. "I shall have to go on."

     "I can't do either!" said Pooh. "Oh, help and bother!"

Synonyms

• botheration, blast, dang (US), darn, drat, phooey, fiddlesticks

Translations

Related terms

• be bothered
• bothered
• bothersome

Anagrams

• boreth

English

Etymology

From Latin exasper?; ex (“out of; thoroughly”) + asper? (“make rough”), from asper (“rough”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /???zæsp(?)?e?t/
• (Received Pronunciation, also) IPA^(key): /???z??sp??e?t/
• Rhymes: -æsp??e?t
• Hyphenation: ex?as?per?ate

Verb

exasperate (third-person singular simple present exasperates, present participle exasperating, simple past and past participle exasperated)

1. To tax the patience of, irk, frustrate, vex, provoke, annoy; to make angry.
   • c. 1611, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 3, scene 6:

     And this report

     Hath so exasperate [sic] the king that he

     Prepares for some attempt of war.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 3:

     The picture represents a Cape-Horner in a great hurricane; the half-foundered ship weltering there with its three dismantled masts alone visible; and an exasperated whale, purposing to spring clean over the craft, is in the enormous act of impaling himself upon the three mast-heads.

   • 1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, chapter 11:

     Beadle goes into various shops and parlours, examining the inhabitants; always shutting the door first, and by exclusion, delay, and general idiotcy, exasperating the public.

   • 1987 January 5, "Woman of the Year: Corazon Aquino," Time:

     [S]he exasperates her security men by acting as if she were protected by some invisible shield.

   • 2007 June 4, "Loyal Mail," Times Online (UK) (retrieved 7 Oct 2010):

     News that Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, is set to receive a bumper bonus will exasperate postal workers.

Translations

Adjective

exasperate (comparative more exasperate, superlative most exasperate)

1. (obsolete) exasperated; embittered.
   • c. 1601, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act V, Scene 1,^[1]

     Thersites. Do I curse thee?

     Patroclus. Why no, you ruinous butt, you whoreson indistinguishable cur, no.

     Thersites. No! why art thou then exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleave-silk […]

   • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman & Hall, 1857, Book 4, p. 177,^[2]

     Like swallows which the exasperate dying year

     Sets spinning […]

Related terms

See also

• exacerbate

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “exasperate”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Ido

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eksaspe?rate/, /e?zaspe?rate/

Verb

exasperate

1. adverbial present passive participle of exasperar

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ek.sas.pe?ra?.te/, [?ks?äs?p???ä?t??]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ek.sas.pe?ra.te/, [??z?sp?????t??]

Verb

exasper?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of exasper?