botheration
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˌbɒðəˈreɪʃən/
Noun

botheration

  1. The act of bothering, or state of being bothered; cause of trouble
    Synonyms: perplexity, annoyance, vexation
    • 1803, William Blake, Letter to his brother James Blake dated 30 January, 1803, in The Poetry and Prose of William Blake, edited by David V. Erdman, New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1970, p. 696,
      I write in great haste & with a head full of botheration about various projected works […]
    • 1954, Peter De Vries, The Tunnel of Love, New York: Popular Library, Chapter Six, p. 63,
      […] the by-products and botherations that go with pleasures make it hardly worth it. Sex is supposedly life's greatest pleasure and look what it gives you.
    • 1982, Saul Bellow, The Dean's December, New York: Pocket Books, 1983, Chapter 4, p. 59,
      At home he read too many papers. He was better off without his daily dose of world botheration, sham happenings, without newspaper phrases.
Interjection
  1. An expression of annoyance.
    • 1918, Katherine Mansfield, "Prelude" in Selected Stories, Oxford World's Classics paperback, 2002, p. 120
      Botheration! How she had crumpled her skirt, kneeling in that idiotic way.
    • 1955, C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew, Collins, 1998, Chapter 3,
      "Blast and botheration!" exclaimed Digory. "What's gone wrong now? […] "



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary