pother

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • v pother make a fuss; be agitated
    • v pother make upset or troubled
    • n pother an excited state of agitation "he was in a dither","there was a terrible flap about the theft"
    • ***
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • n Pother Bustle; confusion; tumult; flutter; bother. "What a pother and stir!""Coming on with a terrible pother ."
    • v. t Pother To harass and perplex; to worry. "Pothers and wearies himself."
    • v. i Pother To make a bustle or stir; to be fussy.
    • ***
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • n pother A tumult; disturbance; confusion; bustle; flutter.
    • pother To make a pother or bustle; make a stir.
    • pother To harass and perplex; bother; puzzle; tease.
    • ***
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • n Pother poth′ėr bustle: confusion
    • v.t Pother to puzzle: to perplex: to tease
    • v.i Pother to make a pother
    • ***

Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Cf. D. peuteren, to rummage, poke. Cf. Potter Pudder

Usage

In literature:

Ferrers and Pothering, the head of Claremont's, were for the moderns.
"The Loom of Youth" by Alec Waugh
The so-called social diseases, over which eugenists raise such a pother, are surely not the worst curses that mankind has to bear.
"Damn!" by Henry Louis Mencken
Dear me, you never see such a pother.
"A Thin Ghost and Others" by M. R. (Montague Rhodes) James
But he ton't vont ter pother mit you now.
"The Boy Land Boomer" by Ralph Bonehill
For, in reality, that was all the whole pother was amounting to.
"The Brentons" by Anna Chapin Ray
What has happened to bring about all this pother?
"The Lure of the Mask" by Harold MacGrath
Something unusual must have occurred to put the pirates to all this pother.
"Yr Ynys Unyg" by Julia de Winton
And with that she ran up-stairs, and I after her, in a great pother of haste.
"The Dew of Their Youth" by S. R. Crockett
But in God's name, what is all this pother?
"Chimney-Pot Papers" by Charles S. Brooks
This act was the signal for a precious to-do among the nervous little potherers.
"Our Bird Comrades" by Leander S. (Leander Sylvester) Keyser
***

In poetry:

Thus, while through life we make a pother,
We quit one bauble for another;
But with this diff'rence from the past,
We've now a bauble that will last.
"The Pleasures Of Matrimony" by William Hutton
"Is wary walking worth much pother?"
It grunted, as still it stayed.
"One pairing is as good as another
Where is all venture! Take each other,
And scrap the oaths that you have aforetime made."
"The Contretemps" by Thomas Hardy
Lucretius keeps a mighty pother
With Cupid and his fancied mother;
Calls her great Queen of earth and air,
Declares that winds and seas obey her.
And, while her honour he rehearses,
Implores her to inspire his verses.
"Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind. In Three Cantos. - Canto I." by Matthew Prior

In science:

This selection reduces background to a negligible level, while at the same time providing a good estimate of the momentum of the other pion: pother = pKS − ptag .
Precise measurement of Gamma(Ks->pi+pi-(gamma))/Gamma(Ks->pi0pi0) with the KLOE detector at DAFNE
***

Related words