irritate
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɪɹ.ɪˌteɪt/
Forms: form: irritates
form: irritating
form: irritated
form: irritated
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin irrītātus, perfect passive participle of irrītō (“excite, irritate, incite, stimulate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Senses: examples: text: If thou irritatest my lord, there will come to war against thee all the Getulians, Numidians, and Garamantes, Afric contains.
ref: 1814, Signor Vestris, La Didone Abbandonata, a Serious Opera, in Two Acts. Altered from Metastasio, by Signor Vestris. As Represented at the King’s Theatre, in the Hay-Market., London: […] J. Gillet, […], page 15:
text: Thou scandalizest me and irritatest my nature as much as it possibly can be irritated.
ref: 1896, Ernest Rénan, translated by Eleanor Grant Vickery, Caliban: A Philosophical Drama Continuing “The Tempest” of William Shakespeare (Publications of The Shakespeare Society of New York; No. 9), New York, N.Y.: The Shakespeare Press; London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd., page 19:
text: Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
ref: 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 10:
synonyms: word: provoke
word: rile
word: aggravate
word: annoy
word: rankle
word: ruffle
word: sting
word: antagonize
word: bother
word: disgruntle
word: botherate
word: bug
word: get
word: grate
word: burn up
word: bedevil
word: cheese off
word: devil
word: exasperate
word: frustrate
word: get up
word: grotch
word: hack off
word: hassle
word: irk
word: irritate
word: jazz
word: molest
word: mommick
word: nark
word: nerve
word: pee off
word: peeve
word: persecute
word: pique
word: piss off
word: provoke
word: rile
word: rile up
word: roil
word: storm
word: test someone's patience
word: tick off
word: trouble
word: try one's patience
word: vex
word: wind up
word: Idioms:
word: boil someone's piss
word: chap someone's hide
word: get on someone's nerves
word: get on someone's tits
word: get on someone's wick
word: get someone's back up
word: get someone's dander up
word: get someone's goat
word: get someone's Irish up
word: get someone's nanny
word: get someone's nanny-goat
word: get under one's goat
word: get under someone's skin
word: give someone the shits
word: grind one's gears
word: harsh one's mellow
word: put someone's back up
word: raise someone's hackles
word: rub someone the wrong way
word: rub up the wrong way
word: ruffle someone's feathers
word: tee off
word: torque off
antonyms: placate
please
soothe
glosses: To provoke impatience, anger, or displeasure in.
synonyms: abrade
chafe
grate
rankle
glosses: To cause or induce displeasure or irritation.
synonyms: word: afflict
word: pang
word: ache
word: afflict
word: aggrieve
word: agonize
word: anguish
word: dere
word: excruciate
word: hurt
word: irritate
word: pang
word: pine
word: rack
word: throe
word: torment
word: torture
word: wring
glosses: To induce pain in (all or part of a body or organism).
Derived terms: abirritate
counterirritate
irritatable
irritator
Related terms: irritant
irritation
irritative
irritatory
disturb
exasperate
peeve