irk
Americanverb (used with object)
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irks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
irked,
past participle, past
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irking
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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irksimple
-
irkssimple
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have irkedperfect
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has irkedperfect
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am irkingprogressive
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are irkingprogressive
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is irkingprogressive
-
have been irkingperfect progressive
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has been irkingperfect progressive
Past
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irkedsimple
-
had irkedperfect
-
was irkingprogressive
-
were irkingprogressive
-
had been irkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of irk
1300–50; Middle English irken to grow tired, tire < Old Norse yrkja to work, cognate with Old English wyrcan; see work
Explanation
The verb irk means "annoy," so if the incessant barking of your next door neighbor's pug is driving you crazy, you can say that the noise irks you. Being irked is an individual thing — what drives you crazy might be something your friend doesn't even notice. For example, it might irk your grammarian friend every time he hears someone says "ain't," but other people don't mind it. The earliest version of the word irk, irken, meant "to feel weary or tired," but it later came to mean "to tire of or to be disgusted with."
Vocabulary lists containing irk
English Words Derived from Old Norse
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Touching Spirit Bear
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Essential Three-Letter Words, Part 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It is a rhetoric likely to irk bondholders.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
These interventions can irk the grassroots, and there will be some carping over the Daines move.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026
Mr Peirson is concerned that the nature of the Ministry of Defence building deal may irk businesses which have already committed to Serbia.
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2025
But the deferred contracts are what might irk the haters the most.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2025
Sahil shifted beside me, probably not used to being so close to Hannah’s irk.
From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon
Inflation measures how much prices have risen over a year, but what irks many people is how much higher prices are than they were before the pandemic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Mark Joseph Stern: This is what irks me the most about Roberts’ opinion in Slaughter.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
What irks me is how one-note the character writing is, and how the movie’s youthful, seemingly forward-thinking perspective allows Barker to get away with reducing Nikki to nothing.
From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2026
“There wasn’t a 3 at the start of my batting average last year, and that irks me,” Freeman said last week.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2026
As she walks slowly through the rooms it irks her that there are dirty dishes stacked in the kitchen, that the bed has not been made.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Santana eventually got Caballero to ground into a double play, but the stall tactics irked him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
But on Wednesday the digital sphere will take centre stage, with some European G7 members wanting more security in moves that have irked the United States.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
It was the removal of wartime leader Churchill that particularly irked politicians earlier this year.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026
The critiques irked Pelosi, a powerful force in California politics.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
And it irked him that she did not want to know more.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Zuckerberg spent more than $110 million buying up at least 11 homes in the affluent neighborhood of Crescent Park in Palo Alto, irking some of his neighbors, the New York Times reported.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
Moffett said that, in the old days, television channels didn’t have to worry about irking customers with rising costs, because that relationship was handled by a middleman — the cable companies.
From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026
He met his wife, Rebecca, at a wedding in 1992 that he attended as a friend’s plus one, irking her by interrupting her conversation with the bride.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
The head of German auto industry group VDA decried the EU parliament's decision, saying it sent a "devastating sign" and risked irking Mercosur countries.
From Barron's ● Jan. 21, 2026
Not two hours altogether of such intercourse had been his, but it had been enough to infuse all his consciousness with a vague but irking discontent.
From The Destroying Angel by Louis Joseph Vance
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
