Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Causing irritation; vexing; provoking; exasperating.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective causing annoyance.
  • adjective causing irritation of living tissue; -- used of physical stimuli.
  • adjective causing pain or physical discomfort.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Causing irritation, annoyance or pain.
  • adjective Stimulating or exciting a response.
  • verb Present participle of irritate.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective causing irritation or annoyance
  • adjective (used of physical stimuli) serving to stimulate or excite
  • adjective causing physical discomfort

Etymologies

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Examples

  • There is a certain irritating sort of journalist - perhaps unfairly, Zoe Williams of the Guardian is the first name that springs to mind - who affects an adolescent offhandedness in his of her writing.

    Simon Titley: Against jargon 2009

  • What I find irritating is that the studio has already commissioned the writers to come up with a sequel for a movie that's still half a year away from release.

    Screenwriters Return for Tron Legacy Sequel | /Film 2010

  • Wolf Larsen was quite considerate, the sailors helped me, and I was no longer in irritating contact with Thomas Mugridge.

    Chapter 16 2010

  • Even more irritating is when they ask how his grades/test scores were last year.

    Liz Willen: Visiting Schools Is a Full-Time Job! Liz Willen 2010

  • What's getting really irritating is the oppositions strategy of using fear as fact.

    Liberal group attacks GOP and insurance industry 2009

  • Hypersensitivity to certain irritating substances (allergens).

    Glossary 2010

  • What's even more irritating is the angle the reporter used, which is the presumably counter-intuitive notion that heart attacks kill more hunters than stray bullets.

    Hunters with Hangovers? Dave Hurteau 2008

  • It's irritating from a normal "Ugh, and I waste my time on this?!" standpoint, baffles me from a "And yet people believe this myth be true enough times to make it worth the scammer's while" perspective and infuriates me from a "And I pay someone to sift through these emails?!" view.

    Archive 2007-03-01 Anne-Marie 2007

  • It's irritating from a normal "Ugh, and I waste my time on this?!" standpoint, baffles me from a "And yet people believe this myth be true enough times to make it worth the scammer's while" perspective and infuriates me from a "And I pay someone to sift through these emails?!" view.

    Scammers Anne-Marie 2007

  • I ` m here because I hope you will agree that an uncoerced, uncoercable press, though at times irritating, is vital to the perpetuation of the freedom and democracy we so often take for granted.

    Bloggers aren’t real reporters 2005

Comments

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  • My adjectival use: 'Would you stop that irritating noise?'

    August 22, 2011