Irritate
['ɪrɪteɪt] or ['ɪrɪtet]
Definition
(verb.) excite to an abnormal condition, or chafe or inflame; 'Aspirin irritates my stomach'.
(verb.) excite to some characteristic action or condition, such as motion, contraction, or nervous impulse, by the application of a stimulus; 'irritate the glands of a leaf'.
Checker: Sherman--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To render null and void.
(v. t.) To increase the action or violence of; to heighten excitement in; to intensify; to stimulate.
(v. t.) To excite anger or displeasure in; to provoke; to tease; to exasperate; to annoy; to vex; as, the insolence of a tyrant irritates his subjects.
(v. t.) To produce irritation in; to stimulate; to cause to contract. See Irritation, n., 2.
(n.) To make morbidly excitable, or oversensitive; to fret; as, the skin is irritated by friction; to irritate a wound by a coarse bandage.
(a.) Excited; heightened.
Editor: Ricky
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Provoke, nettle, chafe, incense, exasperate, enrage, anger, fret, offend, vex, annoy, tease, gall.[2]. (Med.) Inflame (by friction).
Editor: Nolan
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Tease, provoke, annoy, exasperate, worry, incense
ANT:Soothe, caress, pacify, tame, mollify
Inputed by Clinton
Definition
v.t. to make angry: to provoke: to excite heat and redness in: (Scots law) to render null and void.—n. Irritabil′ity the quality of being easily irritated: the peculiar susceptibility to stimuli possessed by the living tissues.—adj. Irr′itable that may be irritated: easily provoked: (med.) susceptible of excitement or irritation.—n. Irr′itableness.—adv. Irr′itably.—n. Irr′itancy the state of being irritant: a becoming null and void.—adj. Irr′itant irritating.—n. that which causes irritation.—n. Irritā′tion act of irritating or exciting: excitement: (med.) the term applied to any morbid excitement of the vital actions not amounting to inflammation often but not always leading to that condition.—adjs. Irr′itātive Irr′itātory tending to irritate or excite: accompanied with or caused by irritation.
Typed by Doreen
Examples
- Then Osborne had the intolerable sense of former benefits to goad and irritate him: these are always a cause of hostility aggravated. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- His look and manner unmistakably betrayed that he knew who I was, and that he wanted to irritate me into quarrelling with him. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- If he could confuse ME, or irritate HER into breaking out, either she or I might have said something which would answer his purpose. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- To talk would be only to irritate. Jane Austen. Emma.
- What if, for some one of the subtler reasons that would tell with both of them, they should tire of each other, misunderstand or irritate each other? Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- I immediately answered Lord Worcester, begging him not to irritate his parents unnecessarily. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- The disturbances which reach the ear from carriage, waves, and leaves are irregular both in time and strength, and irritate the ear, causing the sensation which we call noise. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- He is greatly irritated by the irony of Socrates, but his noisy and imbecile rage only lays him more and more open to the thrusts of his assailant. Plato. The Republic.
- That hiss, faint as it was, irritated the irascible gentleman, and sealed the culprit's fate. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- Now he was smitten with compunction, yet irritated that so trifling an omission should be stored up against him after nearly two years of marriage. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- The cool contempt of her manner irritated me into directly avowing that the purpose of my visit had not been answered yet. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- He found he could not be useful, and his feelings were too much irritated for talking. Jane Austen. Emma.
- Nobody could have browbeaten her, none irritated her nerves, exhausted her patience, or over-reached her astuteness. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- In the irritated state of my curiosity, at that moment, I laid aside the second sheet of paper in despair. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- But if the problem is more heavily charged with power, the taboo irritates the force until it explodes. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- If the company of fools irritates, as you say, the society of clever men leaves its own peculiar pain also. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- My presence irritates her and does her harm. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- First, something tickles your right knee, and then the same sensation irritates your left. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- He irritates me. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- And that irritates you. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Gerty Farish, seated next to Selden, was lost in that indiscriminate and uncritical enjoyment so irritating to Miss Bart's finer perceptions. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- The rain pours; Gardes-du-Corps go caracoling through the groups 'amid hisses'; irritating and agitating what is but dispersed here to reunite there. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- There was a most irritating end to every one of these debates. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- Nancy, apparently fearful of irritating the housebreaker, sat with her eyes fixed upon the fire, as if she had been deaf to all that passed. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- An irritating sense of thirst, and, when I strove to speak or move, an entire dereliction of power, was all I felt. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- More; he irritated it, with a kind of perverse pleasure akin to that which a sick man sometimes has in irritating a wound upon his body. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- That is no answer; or rather it is a very irritating, because a very evasive one. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
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