IRRITATING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Irritating

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/ˈɪrətˌeɪtɪŋ/ Listen

Irritating

adjective

1.

Causing irritation or annoyance. Synonyms: annoying, bothersome, galling, nettlesome, pesky, pestering, pestiferous, plaguey, plaguy, teasing, vexatious, vexing. "Aircraft noise is particularly bothersome near the airport" , "Found it galling to have to ask permission" , "An irritating delay" , "Nettlesome paperwork" , "A pesky mosquito" , "Swarms of pestering gnats" , "A plaguey newfangled safety catch" , "A teasing and persistent thought annoyed him" , "A vexatious child" , "It is vexing to have to admit you are wrong"

2.

(used of physical stimuli) serving to stimulate or excite. Synonym: irritative.

3.

Causing physical discomfort. Synonym: painful.

Irritate

verb

(past & past part. irritated; pres. part. irritating)

1.

Cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations. Synonyms: annoy, bother, chafe, devil, get at, get to, gravel, nark, nettle, rag, rile, vex. "It irritates me that she never closes the door after she leaves"

2.

Excite to an abnormal condition, or chafe or inflame.

3.

Excite to some characteristic action or condition, such as motion, contraction, or nervous impulse, by the application of a stimulus.

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WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Irritating" Quotes from Famous Books

... those Green Flies which are the pest of this Distressful Country. I refuse to believe that. There never was, never will, never can, never shall be any Green in my eye. But whatever it is, mote or beam, it is awfully irritating. Do look into it; it is not in the white, or perhaps I should say—for I am a brunette of olive complexion, you ...

— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 22, 1893 • Various

... of spirit was subjected to a sore pecuniary trial. It was the opening of Lord North's administration, a time of great political excitement. The public mind was agitated by the question of American taxation, and other questions of like irritating tendency. Junius and Wilkes and other powerful writers were attacking the administration with all their force; Grub Street was stirred up to its lowest depths; inflammatory talent of all kinds was in full activity, and the kingdom ...

— Oliver Goldsmith • Washington Irving

... subscribe a test, acknowledging the supremacy of the British Parliament. This bill was warmly opposed in both houses, on the grounds of confounding the innocent with the guilty—of destroying a trade which perhaps could never be recovered—and of cruelly starving whole provinces, and thus irritating the Americans to withhold debts due to the British merchants. In support of the bill it was argued, that as the Americans had resolved not to trade with England, it was but fair to prevent their trading ...

— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... resented a certain irritating air of superiority that Ernest and his friends assumed and began a series of petty annoyances, bumping into them or crossing from the side just in front while they were racing. The boys contented themselves at first with warning ...

— Chicken Little Jane • Lily Munsell Ritchie

... "Yes, perhaps so. If he hasn't changed for the worse. But it'll be rather irritating if he talks about nothing but Irene still. Oh, that's impossible! ...

— The Crown of Life • George Gissing

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