pother

Origin uncertain. Compare Dutch peuteren (“to rummage, poke”), and English potter, pudder.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpʌðə/, /ˈpɒðə/
• Rhymes: -ʌðə(ɹ)
• Rhymes: -ɒðə(ɹ)

pother (countable and uncountable, plural pothers)

1. A commotion, a tempest.
   • 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear III.ii:

     Let the great gods, / That keep this dreadful pother o’er our heads, / Find out their enemies now.

   • 1941, Lewiston Morning Tribune, 14th of May:

     (name of the article) Flight Of Hess Causes Pother Among Germans

   • 1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian, Collins, 1998, Chapter 5,

     After some years there came a time when the Queen seemed to be ill and there was a great deal of bustle and pother about her in the castle and doctors came and the courtiers whispered.

pother (third-person singular simple present pothers, present participle pothering, simple past and past participle pothered)

1. (intransitive) To make a bustle or stir; to be fussy.
2. (transitive) To puzzle or perplex.

• Thorpe, Topher, tephro-, thorpe