different between haunt vs worry

English

Alternative forms

• hant (Scotland), haint (US, dialectal)

Etymology

From Middle English haunten (“to reside, inhabit, use, employ”), from Old French hanter (“to inhabit, frequent, resort to”), from Old Northern French hanter (“to go back home, frequent”), from Old Norse heimta (“to bring home, fetch”) or/and from Old English h?mettan (“to bring home; house; cohabit with”); both from Proto-Germanic *haimatjan? (“to house, bring home”), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“village, home”), from Proto-Indo-European *k?ym- (“village”).

Cognate with Old English h?mettan (“to provide housing to, bring home”); related to Old English h?m (“home, village”), Old French hantin (“a stay, a place frequented by”) from the same Germanic source. Another descendant from the French is Dutch hanteren, whence German hantieren, Swedish hantera, Danish håndtere. More at home.

Pronunciation

• enPR: hônt, IPA^(key): /h??nt/
• Rhymes: -??nt
• (some accents) enPR: hänt, IPA^(key): /h??nt/
• Rhymes: -??nt
• (some accents for noun definition #2) enPR: h?nt, IPA^(key): /hænt/
• Rhymes: -ænt

Verb

haunt (third-person singular simple present haunts, present participle haunting, simple past and past participle haunted)

1. (transitive) To inhabit, or visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
   • Foul spirits haunt my resting place.

   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, Imitation of Horace, Book I. Ep. VII.

     those cares that haunt the court and town

2. (transitive) To make uneasy, restless.

3. (transitive) To stalk, to follow

4. (intransitive, now rare) To live habitually; to stay, to remain.
5. (transitive, Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.
6. (transitive, Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To practise; to devote oneself to.
   • 1570, Roger Ascham, The School master

     Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.

7. (intransitive) To persist in staying or visiting.

Synonyms

• (to make uneasy): nag
• (to live habitually): live, dwell; See also Thesaurus:reside

Translations

Noun

haunt (plural haunts)

1. A place at which one is regularly found; a habitation or hangout.
   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, "Kitty's Class Day":

     Both Jack and Fletcher had graduated the year before, but still took an interest in their old haunts, and patronized the fellows who were not yet through.

   • 1984, Timothy Loughran and Natalie Angier, "Science: Striking It Rich in Wyoming," Time, 8 Oct.:

     Wyoming has been a favorite haunt of paleontologists for the past century ever since westering pioneers reported that many vertebrate fossils were almost lying on the ground.
2. (dialect) A ghost.
   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, page 93:

     ‘Harnts don't wander much ginerally,’ he said. ‘They hand round thar own buryin'-groun' mainly.’

3. A feeding place for animals.

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Utahn, unhat

English

Etymology

From Middle English worien, werien, wirien, wirwen, wyry?en (“to choke, strangle”), from Old English wyr?an, from Proto-Germanic *wurgijan?, from Proto-Indo-European *wer??- (“bind, squeeze”). Cognate with Dutch worgen, wurgen, German würgen. Compare Latin urgere (“to press, push”), Sanskrit ????? (v?hati, “to tear out, pluck”), Lithuanian ver?žti (“to string; squeeze”), Russian (poetic) ?????????? (otverzát?, “to open”, literally “to untie”). Related to wring.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General New Zealand, General Australian) IPA^(key): /?w??i/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?w??i/, /?w?i/
• (General New Zealand, General Australian, non-standard) IPA^(key): /?w??i/
• (West Country, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /?w???i/
• (accents without the "Hurry-furry" merger)
• (accents with the "Hurry-furry" merger)
• Rhymes: -?ri

Homophone: wurry

Verb

worry (third-person singular simple present worries, present participle worrying, simple past and past participle worried)

1. (intransitive) To be troubled; to give way to mental anxiety or doubt.

2. (transitive) Disturb the peace of mind of; afflict with mental agitation or distress.

3. (transitive) To harass; to irritate or distress.

4. (transitive) To seize or shake by the throat, especially of a dog or wolf.
5. (transitive) To touch repeatedly, to fiddle with.
   • 1997, David Sedaris, "A Plague of Tics", Naked, page 15:

     So what if I wanted to touch my nose to the windshield? Who was it hurting? Why was it that he could repeatedly worry his change and bite his lower lip without the threat of punishment?

   • 2002, Masha Hamilton, Staircase of a Thousand Steps, page 272:

     No stories, no arguments. He just worries his prayer beads.

6. (transitive, obsolete, Scotland) To strangle.
   • 1891, Journal of Jurisprudence and Scottish Law Magazine (1891), Execution of the Judgment of Death, page 397:

     We read (Law's Memor. Pref. lix.) that "one John Brugh, a notorious warlock (wizard) in the parochin of Fossoquhy, by the space of thirty-six years, was worried at a stake and burned, 1643."

Synonyms

• (trouble mentally): fret

Derived terms

• beworry
• worried

Translations

Noun

worry (countable and uncountable, plural worries)

1. A strong feeling of anxiety.

2. An instance or cause of such a feeling.

3. A person who causes worry.

Derived terms

• worrisome
• worryful
• worryless

Translations

Scots

Verb

worry

1. (transitive) To strangle.