I.verbCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a worrying/disturbing aspect
▪ The worrying aspect is that it gets worse every year.
an alarming/worrying/disturbing trend
▪ I have detected a worrying trend of late.
an anxious/troubled/worried expression
▪ She stood looking at me with an anxious expression.
desperately unhappy/lonely/worried etc
sb’s worries/concerns about the future
▪ their worries about the future of the English countryside
seriously worried
▪ Hazel was now seriously worried.
unduly worried/concerned/anxious etc
▪ She doesn’t seem unduly concerned about her exams.
worried/anxious
▪ My father watched us go with a worried face.
worried/concerned/anxious etc lest ...
▪ He paused, afraid lest he say too much.
▪ She worried lest he should tell someone what had happened.
worry beads
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
about
▪ I only had the first one to worry about.
▪ Bland reassurances came from the officials in charge of the spraying, who said there was nothing to worry about.
▪ But it's going to be all right - there's nothing to worry about.
▪ She worries about him all the time. 1943 I am fourteen months old when my father goes away to war.
▪ Not much to worry about there, he thought.
▪ I had nothing to worry about.
▪ The one thing I didn't have to worry about was losing control of my bodily functions.
▪ As it turned out, there was nothing to worry about.
really
▪ To protect Britain's biggest manufacturer by making it less efficient: now that should really worry the public.
▪ It really worries me what the impact could be in a few years when we hit the bottom of the business cycle.
▪ That's the one that really worries me.
▪ It is the criminal activity surrounding the supply of illegal drugs that we should really worry about.
▪ I was fourteen, and Mom got really worried about me.
▪ It hasn't really worried me, though.
▪ I don't really worry about my body.
■ NOUN
need
▪ But there was really no need to worry.
▪ A State Department spokeswoman says there is no need to worry.
▪ Because she never had to be his lover in front of Maggie or Rachel she had no need to worry about that either.
▪ No need to worry about electrical failure, either, thanks to our backup response unit.
▪ So I see no need to worry.
▪ At the initial planning stage there is probably no need to worry too much about the three attainment targets.
▪ She was at work, he knew; there was no need to worry about her.
thing
▪ One thing that worries parents about their children becoming vegetarian is that they might lack protein.
▪ We have better things to worry about.
▪ There's only one thing worries me.
▪ I have more important things to worry about.
▪ Few things were more worrying than the idea of Andrea with magic powers.
▪ But one thing that worries me is the way information about the sortie has leaked out.
▪ That sort of thing worries the college authorities no end, as you can imagine.
▪ The things that worry Sid-Ahmed most are the deep divisions the population crush has helped create.
things
▪ Do not worry about things like night clothes and toilet things - the hospital will have everything that you could need.
▪ Machinists worry about getting things level and straight.
▪ In their present situation there was no time to worry about such things.
▪ Downtown business types worry about things like access to parking garages.
▪ But never mind no time to worry about things like that.
▪ But how can I worry about these things now?
▪ Basque is so well off that it can worry about esoteric things as far as the language is concerned.
▪ For there is no point in worrying about things that are outside your control.
■ VERB
begin
▪ When she got the blade of the shove between her teeth and began to worry it I called a halt.
▪ And I began to worry about Bill himself.
▪ Then, when I- heard cries on the moor, I began to worry about him.
▪ Maggie began to worry that they might actually physically restrain her.
▪ But after a few days Clare began to worry.
▪ By now it was getting late and I began to worry.
▪ Fort Davis residents have begun to worry that McLaren is not a solitary kook.
let
▪ Hilda would have called it not letting him worry, keeping everything smooth and secure.
▪ You let me worry about that.
▪ It was so far outside anything he'd ever seen before that his mind wasn't letting him worry about it.
▪ Were you, a slave, called? Let it not worry you.
▪ Don't let it worry you.
▪ Have fun. Let me do the worrying.
▪ But I still didn't let my weight worry me.
▪ For years we voters have demanded high government services and low taxes, letting future generations worry about the fiscal consequences.
start
▪ I am starting to worry that I might be schizophrenic.
▪ Though the girls loved the game, after a while he started worrying about what other people might think.
▪ Half way through, I started to worry that an airplane would crash into the preview theatre.
▪ Melvin, our metaphor for the government, starts worrying.
▪ I started to worry about the curfew.
▪ She had started to worry about Mr Skipton almost as much as she worried about his sick wife.
▪ And then I started to worry.
stop
▪ Maera looks at the faces in front of her and she stops worrying.
▪ Reading aloud to our kids will have educational payoffs only if we stop worrying about those payoffs.
▪ He stopped worrying about him anyway.
▪ Before long, we stopped worrying that it would end.
▪ So should we stop worrying about the abuse excuse?
▪ He can never stop worrying about where the next meal is coming from.
▪ I had to stop worrying, I had to forget about everything but Frank.
▪ But that did not mean that we stopped worrying.
tell
▪ Lynn told me not to worry, that he would sort it out with Frank.
▪ Yet gays turning to churches and other institutions for help all too often were told not to worry.
▪ My position there was simple: I told them not to worry about it.
▪ He told me not to worry.
▪ I told her not to worry, it's wind, and not to pick him up every minute, either.
▪ Quinn stood up, raised his hand in a gesture of peace, and told her not to worry.
▪ I told them not to worry, that I was sure I'd see them again - on the scene.
▪ Denoyer tells him not to worry, the painting is just out on loan to a gallery in Cannes.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be out of your mind with worry/grief etc
be worried sick/be sick with worry
bored/scared/worried stiff
▪ And I was scared stiff about having lied to Mel about being single when he hired me.
▪ Cis, who knew about it, was scared stiff.
▪ He was scared stiff, thought a ghastly mistake had been made.
▪ He was very naturally scared stiff of using up all his remaining petrol and making a bad landing.
▪ Mabel was by now scared stiff and frozen cold.
▪ Poor kid, thought Alice, he's scared stiff.
▪ We looked at each other, scared stiff, but we followed Mrs Bullivant upstairs.
niggling doubt/worry/suspicion etc
▪ Almost immediately, the fretting, niggling worries and the sense of fearful anticipation began to return.
▪ Always, in the background, in the dim recesses of her mind, there had been that niggling doubt.
▪ And here a niggling doubt enters the mind.
▪ Nor did it remove the niggling suspicion that Isabel was hiding something.
▪ Of course, this is usually so, but I am having little niggling doubts about such a sweeping statement.
▪ There remains the niggling doubt that this delay has something to do with our muddled sentimentality towards animals.
▪ There was, however, a niggling doubt in the minds of some of the jurors.
the least of sb's worries/problems/troubles/concerns
▪ For not the least of Henry's problems was how to raise the money required for the accomplishment of such an undertaking.
▪ Greatly increased taxes and a major shift back to defence expenditure could be the least of our worries.
▪ Not the least of its problems was extreme alienation between labor and management.
▪ That was the least of her troubles.
▪ The death under somewhat dubious circumstances of a racehorse belonging to his son was frankly the least of his problems.
you had me worried
▪ You really had me worried - I thought you didn't like the present.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ "Why didn't you tell me?" "I didn't want to worry you."
▪ Doesn't it worry you that Stephen spends so much time away from home?
▪ Don't worry, there's plenty of time.
▪ He began to worry he might lose his job.
▪ I don't know what you're worrying about.
▪ I was worried that Shannon was too small, but the doctor says she's fine.
▪ I was really worried about it at the time.
▪ Mom, stop worrying. I'll be fine.
▪ My husband worries when I'm late home from work.
▪ One thing that worried me was that information had been leaked to the press.
▪ The changes in the Earth's climate began to worry some scientists.
▪ The rise in housing costs worries most young families.
▪ What worries me is the difference in age between Rosie and her boyfriend.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ In reality, Arum has little to worry about.
▪ Legislative opponents worried about the possibility of more initiative campaigns, however, and the September plan was dropped.
▪ Mr Davenport now worries that re-engineering is passing from a fad to a cliché.
▪ No, the Polk County chairman for Forbes is worried about something entirely nonpolitical: the weather.
▪ On the contrary it would merely increase their anxiety level, even if there was nothing to worry about.
▪ Theo was asked not to worry, and not to tell anyone unless forced.
▪ There was nothing to worry about: if there had been, the fuzz would have come in with a warrant.
▪ Use this to your advantage by scanning the papers for any major police search, then target the worried relatives.
II.nounCOLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
big
▪ But the biggest worry for Taylor must be Platt.
▪ Among the biggest worries of fathers today is how their children are faring in child care while they are at work.
▪ For the government, pensions are the biggest worry.
▪ My big worry is that the Monster will come wide awake and ruin things with its gross demands.
▪ That's my biggest worry, keeping warm.
▪ The big worry now is: how many other societies might follow suit.
▪ The second big worry is that health reform will confirm Mr Clinton's reputation as a tax-and-spend liberal.
▪ The biggest worry is still public finance.
constant
▪ We were trying to find out where his particular niches lay and the constant worry at that time was lack of money.
▪ I would have preferred suffering financially over living with the constant worry about them operating the market.
▪ Infection in surgery, whether from within or outside the patient, is a constant worry.
▪ Obviously you can get no joy out of motherhood if it is simply a constant worry.
▪ We do have an ever constant worry about finance and on the back page you will find our latest Fund Raising Appeal.
economic
▪ And he says our own economic worries aren't a good enough excuse.
financial
▪ These are difficult days for students ... financial worries and job uncertainty, as well as coping with life alone.
▪ Students today can not so easily neglect financial worries as their predecessors twenty years before.
▪ Speculation about his death centred most persistently on financial worries.
▪ In one bound he would be free of all financial worries.
▪ The jury heard Warwick had financial worries which caused marital pressures.
▪ Bach's last years were clouded by financial worries caused by declining receipts and heavy expenditure on the Hanover Square concerts.
▪ Only after Coleridge returned from Shrewsbury, freed at last from immediate financial worry, could vague hopes be transformed into clearer intentions.
▪ It ends months of financial worry for Alan Govier, who worked for a printing firm for forty-nine years.
frantic
▪ I don't mind telling you, I've been almost frantic with worry this last half-hour.
great
▪ But David Beaton's greatest worry was for Hector.
▪ The idea is to secure peace of mind for the elderly whose greatest worry is fear of attack.
▪ Remember only recently when the great worry was that gays were going to wreck the military?
▪ As insurance the selectors have picked seven loose forwards and this may emphasise one of the great worries about the touring side.
▪ She had enough to worry about and the greatest worry was how to make herself step inside this house.
▪ He found the bank's routine congenial, keeping greater worries at bay.
main
▪ My main worry is that he hasn't brought interest rates down far enough.
▪ As far as children with special educational needs are concerned, there are for me two main worries.
▪ But it has given rise to two main worries among western diplomats in Bonn.
▪ Their main worry is their children.
▪ Hand movements are one of their main worries.
▪ Concussion is the main worry concerning feet and joints.
▪ Their main worries seemed to be not the paper, but bad publicity and the left being seen fighting amongst itself.
major
▪ A major worry for patients in psychiatric hospitals has always been money and access to it.
▪ Nor was food going to be a major worry.
▪ Another major worry for women is being left on their own.
▪ It was a worry that became our major worry.
▪ The major worry concerns skipper and key defender Brian Gayle.
▪ The prospect of sailing into the late autumn was itself the major worry.
▪ The other major worry was that the Russells Hall pupils would be much better at the work.
real
▪ At first Keoni had seemed very remote, too distant to be a real worry.
▪ But even playing it is a real worry.
▪ I've had some real worries lately-including love problems.
▪ It is a real worry that evictions might take place.
▪ It's a real worry with him being so far away.
▪ The quality of those troops was at the heart of the Duke's real worries.
sick
▪ She was sick with worry about everything.
■ VERB
cause
▪ The experiment, which had caused some worry, particularly on the Labour benches, was entirely successful.
▪ Holidays Holidays cause a lot of worry for novice fishkeepers.
▪ Stability Basements constructed from new should not cause any worries.
▪ Sien was causing him a great deal of worry as the year wore on.
▪ The people concerned should make sure of the facts before causing unnecessary worry.
▪ This makes it difficult to reach a decision, and causes a nagging worry as to whether the right system has been selected.
▪ It isn't nuclear radiation but electro magnetic and magnetic fields that are causing the worry.
ease
▪ Shrewsbury eased their worries with a 2-1 win over fellow strugglers Halifax at Gay Meadow.
▪ This would ease worries in the West about supply shortages.
express
▪ Armstrong also expressed his worry over the inconsistency between benzene-diazo-chloride and benzene-azo-benzene, both with two nitrogen atoms.
▪ They may become more able to express their worries and anger in posItive, rather than maladaptive, ways.
▪ In order for parents to express these worries, however, the child must at some time have produced actual behaviour.
▪ Nevertheless, headteachers did express worries about condoned absence.
▪ While some expressed worry and fear, many appeared indifferent and even optimistic about the chaos in the building.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be out of your mind with worry/grief etc
be worried sick/be sick with worry
bored/scared/worried stiff
▪ And I was scared stiff about having lied to Mel about being single when he hired me.
▪ Cis, who knew about it, was scared stiff.
▪ He was scared stiff, thought a ghastly mistake had been made.
▪ He was very naturally scared stiff of using up all his remaining petrol and making a bad landing.
▪ Mabel was by now scared stiff and frozen cold.
▪ Poor kid, thought Alice, he's scared stiff.
▪ We looked at each other, scared stiff, but we followed Mrs Bullivant upstairs.
niggling doubt/worry/suspicion etc
▪ Almost immediately, the fretting, niggling worries and the sense of fearful anticipation began to return.
▪ Always, in the background, in the dim recesses of her mind, there had been that niggling doubt.
▪ And here a niggling doubt enters the mind.
▪ Nor did it remove the niggling suspicion that Isabel was hiding something.
▪ Of course, this is usually so, but I am having little niggling doubts about such a sweeping statement.
▪ There remains the niggling doubt that this delay has something to do with our muddled sentimentality towards animals.
▪ There was, however, a niggling doubt in the minds of some of the jurors.
offload your worries/emotions/problems etc
▪ It would be nice to have been able to offload your worries on to some one or something like that.
the least of sb's worries/problems/troubles/concerns
▪ For not the least of Henry's problems was how to raise the money required for the accomplishment of such an undertaking.
▪ Greatly increased taxes and a major shift back to defence expenditure could be the least of our worries.
▪ Not the least of its problems was extreme alienation between labor and management.
▪ That was the least of her troubles.
▪ The death under somewhat dubious circumstances of a racehorse belonging to his son was frankly the least of his problems.
you had me worried
▪ You really had me worried - I thought you didn't like the present.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Worries about the tire company's performance sent its shares tumbling.
▪ financial worries
▪ His remarks reflect a widespread worry that Canada may be going the same way as the US.
▪ It's important that children can discuss their worries with their parents.
▪ Roosevelt's chief worry at the time was that an attack on Britain would put the US at a strategic disadvantage.
▪ The launch was delayed because of worries over protestors.
▪ The meningitis outbreak is a major cause of worry at the moment.
▪ The poor mother was sick with worry over her missing daughter.
▪ The rage and disappointment had disappeared, but the worry in Jim's face was starting to show.
▪ This constant worry about your debts isn't doing you any good at all.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A modest economic upswing may relieve the worries of the corporations.
▪ As he dried his hands carefully, finger by finger, the old familiar worry returned, heavy as a morbid growth.
▪ At the back of her mind was a nagging worry about the Tarlands' relationship with Marco.
▪ For she followed through with an act which suggests that she may have had some later worries.
▪ His worry is how to handle success.
▪ The experiment, which had caused some worry, particularly on the Labour benches, was entirely successful.
▪ The great worry of most Hormel backers this time around is that Helms will block hearings on his nomination.
▪ You may recall that earlier in the year I burdened you with my worries.