worrywart

plural worrywarts · alternative worry wart · alternative worry-wart

1. A person who worries excessively, especially about unimportant matters.

   It doesn't mean you're a worrywart, a nervous wreck or in need of heavy medication.

   2005, Hal Edward Runkel, Screamfree Parenting: Raising Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool, →ISBN, page 31

   3 more examples

   Kei knew that the stepgirls saw her as a worrywart, that when it came to having fun, they had written her off as a lost cause.

   2003, Mako Yoshikawa, “New Jersey, 1974–82”, in Once Removed, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, pages 67–68

   On vacation, I'm a worrywart for fretting about third-degree burns and puncture wounds.

   2008 August 17, Nicole L.V. Mullis, “Vacation renders kids, adult males impervious to danger”, in Battle Creek Enquirer

   When Biden takes the presidential oath in January, many will write articles scolding those who expressed concern about a coup as worrywarts, or as people misusing terminology.

   2020 December 7, Zeynep Tufekci, “‘This Must Be Your First’”, in The Atlantic

   Synonyms: bundle of nerves, worrier, bag of nerves, bundle of nerves, jitterbug, nervous Nellie, nervous wreck, neurotic