worrying

comparative more worrying · superlative most worrying

1. Inducing worry.

   Moldova did give England's under-employed keeper Joe Hart a worrying moment when Igor Armas sent a free header wide but otherwise it was an easy night.

   2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport

   1 more example

   Redundancies accounted for a smaller proportion of the change, although no less significant to those affected. Rail News, BR's staff magazine, included a coda to its August 1964 assessment of the Beeching cuts: "For the individuals involved it is a worrying time [...] Rail News feels deeply for those affected and expresses the sympathy of its readers with them."

   2023 March 22, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, in RAIL, number 979, page 39

   Synonyms: disquieting

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of worry

plural worryings

1. The act of worrying or harassing somebody.

   There is a snaky gleam in her hard grey eye, as of anticipated rounds of buttered toast, relays of hot chops, worryings and quellings of young children, sharp snappings at poor Berry, and all the other delights of her Ogress's castle.

   1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “Retribution”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 594