Green’s Dictionary of Slang

trouble, difficulties; thus in bother, in trouble.

1819		Leeds Intelligencer 1 Mar. 3/4: I need not premise here the cause of this bother; ’Tis know from one end of the realm to the other.
1829		London Eve. Standard 23 Nov. 1/5: Don’t make a bother about it, John.
1836		‘Cat’s-Meat Nell’ in Cockchafer 4: While Nellie, vith her barrow vaddling, / Set all the boys a laughing. / The bother of those saucy brats / Confus’d and cross’d our cries.
1849		Bath Chron. 5 July 3/3: Never mind, I’ll pay for them, and let’s have no bother about it.
1862		W. Cheadle Journal (1931) 10 Jan. 103: I found it an infernal bother lifting up the sled.
1873		Sl. Dict. 93: Bother trouble or annoyance. Any one oppressed with business cares is said to be bothered. ‘Don’t bother,’ is a common expression.
1888		Lancs. Eve. Post 3 Feb. 4/5: ‘Have you killed him?’ [...] ‘No, the lubber isn’t worth the bother’.
1893		St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) 3 Dec. 17/7: ‘To look for bother’ and ‘to look for trouble’ mean wanting to fight.
1893		G. Gissing ‘Lou and Liz’ in Keating Working Class Stories of the 1890s (1971) 86: There ain’t no use in making a bother.
1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Penny Numbers’ Sporting Times 11 July 1/3: The old oof-bag, no doubt, / Should, without any bother or bicker, / Have unloaded his parcel, and handed it out!
1911		Gem 9 Dec. 8: Gussy has got himself into a bother, as usual.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 24 Jan. 5/6: [headline] ‘Business’ Agent In Bother. Committed For Trial On Two Criminal Charges.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 524: That time big Jim Summers started ’is bit o’ bother.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 181: It’d’ve saved a lot of bother if you’d’ve talked straight about it.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 89: Putting him to a lot of bother for nothing.
1959		F. Norman Fings I i: I’m not doing villainy no more. I don’t want no bovva.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 23: My geezer at the CACA was so pleased that I hadn’t got into any bother for the whole of the year.
1977		S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 47: Irish yobs [...] peep about for dishonourable bother.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘Cash and Curry’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Del – are you alright son? I thought you was in bother!
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 43: Peregrine was in a lot more bother than he had realised.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 17: I was having some bother with some Abo cane cutters.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 11 July 1: Dave Courtney, who had a spot of bother in 1980 with five Chinese waiters and a machete.
2001		N. Griffiths Sheepshagger 12: Would’ve saved every fuckin one of us a whole lot of bastard bother.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 286: Billy getting intae bother n Mark bein away in London.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Irish Fandango [ebook] ‘[Y]ou’ll find yourself in a spot of serious bother’.