Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In pathology, morbid responsiveness to stimuli.
- noun The quality of being irritable; an irritable state or condition of the mind; proneness to mental irritation; irascibility; petulance: as, irritability of temper.
- noun In physiology, the property of nerve, muscle, or other active tissue of reacting upon stimuli; in muscles, specifically, the property of contracting when stimulated.
- noun In botany, that endowment of a vegetable organism by virtue of which a motion takes place in it in response to an external stimulus.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The state or quality of being irritable; quick excitability; petulance; fretfulness.
- noun (Physiol.) A natural susceptibility, characteristic of all living organisms, tissues, and cells, to the influence of certain stimuli, response being manifested in a variety of ways, -- as that quality in plants by which they exhibit motion under suitable stimulation; esp., the property which living muscle possesses, of responding either to a direct stimulus of its substance, or to the stimulating influence of its nerve fibers, the response being indicated by a change of form, or contraction; contractility.
- noun (Med.) A condition of morbid excitability of an organ or part of the body; undue susceptibility to the influence of stimuli. See
Irritation , n., 3.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The state or quality of being
irritable ; quickexcitability ;petulance ;fretfulness ; as, irritability of temper. - noun physiology A natural
susceptibility , characteristic of all living organisms, tissues, and cells, to the influence of certainstimuli , response being manifested in a variety of ways. - noun medicine A condition of
morbid excitability of anorgan or part of the body; undue susceptibility to the influence of stimuli.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an irritable petulant feeling
- noun excessive sensitivity of an organ or body part
- noun a disposition to exhibit uncontrolled anger
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word irritability.
Examples
-
I am so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open, and the irritability is astounding.
-
They can include: difficulty breathing sweating while nursing or taking a bottle poor weight gain irritability, lethargy or unresponsiveness (the baby seems “out of it”)
Cardiomyopathy 2010
-
His irritability is so terrible upon politics that they are no sooner the topic of discourse than they cast upon his face the expression of a man who is going to defend himself against murderers!
-
Nevertheless to those weak habits with pale skins and large pupils of the eyes, whose degree of irritability is less than health requires, as in scrofulous, hysterical, and sonic consumptive constitutions,
Note VII 1803
-
And in 1752 he described one hundred and ninety experiments for determining what parts of the body possess "irritability" -- that is, the property of contracting when stimulated.
-
a time into the cold air, the sensorial power of irritability is accumulated and they become stronger.
Note VII 1803
-
This is totally my own theory, but having watched a mother cat wean, I suspect this irritability is at play amongst all mammals.
» Weaning, Partial Weaning and Mixed Feelings Strocel.com 2009
-
Accompanying the irritability was a malaise that had nothing do with missing my daily dose of coffee.
-
Accompanying the irritability was a malaise that had nothing do with missing my daily dose of coffee.
The Content of My Life Has No Appendix (Part 2) « Exile on Ninth Street 2008
-
Accompanying the irritability was a malaise that had nothing do with missing my daily dose of coffee.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.