different between weary vs worry

English

Etymology

From Middle English wery, weri, from Old English w?ri?, from Proto-Germanic *w?r?gaz, *w?ragaz. Cognate with Saterland Frisian wuurich (“weary, tired”), West Frisian wurch (“tired”), Dutch dialectal wurrig (“exhausted”), Old Saxon w?rig (“weary”), Old High German w?rag, wuarag (“drunken”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?w???i/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /?wi??i/
• Rhymes: -???i
• Hyphenation: wea?ry

Adjective

weary (comparative wearier, superlative weariest)

1. Having the strength exhausted by toil or exertion; tired; fatigued.
   • 1623, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 2, Scene IV:

     I care not for my spirits if my legs were not weary.

   • 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Weariness

     [I] am weary, thinking of your task.

   • There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

2. Having one's patience, relish, or contentment exhausted; tired; sick.

3. Expressive of fatigue.

4. Causing weariness; tiresome.
   • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

     There passed a weary time.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:fatigued

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

weary (third-person singular simple present wearies, present participle wearying, simple past and past participle wearied)

1. To make or to become weary.
   • 1599, Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act IV, scene iii

     So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers,

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, Chapter 4

     Yet there was no time to be lost if I was ever to get out alive, and so I groped with my hands against the side of the grave until I made out the bottom edge of the slab, and then fell to grubbing beneath it with my fingers. But the earth, which the day before had looked light and loamy to the eye, was stiff and hard enough when one came to tackle it with naked hands, and in an hour's time I had done little more than further weary myself and bruise my fingers.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:tire

Derived terms

• unwearied
• unwearying
• weariedly

Translations

See also

• wary

Anagrams

• Erway, Wreay

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.