Definition of "pother" []

• A commotion; a disturbance. (noun)
• A state of nervous activity; a fuss. (noun)
• A cloud of smoke or dust that chokes or smothers. (noun)
• To make confused; trouble; worry. (verb-transitive)
• To be overly concerned with trifles; fuss. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The damsel, now-a-days, who marries a lad younger than herself, is laying up a large stock of pother, which is to bother her when she becomes thirty -- for even young ladies, you know, after forty, may become thirty."
• "At the poem's centre is a debate about "exact thinking", and how such thinking translates into action, and whether emotion as opposed to reason is ever a justifiable ground for action, and whether action is ever worth it in the first place - though of course if were to be so, then it must first be based on absolutely exact thinking - and, as any sensible reader will swiftly deduce, this is exactly the sort of over-analytical "pother" (Claude's word) which is most discouraging to a woman who might be inclined to think that you might be inclined to be in love with her."
• "Therefore we have on hand an IBM Selectric for addressing envelopes and writing notes without the pother of computer printers."