irritable
Americanadjective
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easily irritated or annoyed; readily excited to impatience or anger.
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Physiology, Biology. displaying irritability.
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Pathology. susceptible to physical irritation.
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Medicine/Medical. abnormally sensitive to a stimulus.
adjective
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quickly irritated; easily annoyed; peevish
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(of all living organisms) capable of responding to such stimuli as heat, light, and touch
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pathol abnormally sensitive
Related Words
Irritable, testy, touchy, irascible are adjectives meaning easily upset, offended, or angered. Irritable means easily annoyed or bothered, and it implies cross and snappish behavior: an irritable clerk, rude and hostile; Impatient and irritable, he was constantly complaining. Testy describes the same kind of behavior or response, particularly to minor annoyances: always on edge, testy and sharp in response; testy and petulant, resenting any interruption. Touchy emphasizes oversensitivity and readiness to take offense, even when none is intended: especially touchy about any reference to obesity. Irascible means habitually angry or easily aroused to anger: an irascible tyrant, roaring at employees for the slightest error.
Other Word Forms
- irritability noun
- irritableness noun
- irritably adverb
- nonirritable adjective
- nonirritableness noun
- nonirritably adverb
- unirritable adjective
- unirritably adverb
Etymology
Origin of irritable
First recorded in 1655–65; from Latin irrītābilis, equivalent to irrītā(re) “to irritate ” + -bilis -ble
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.
I’m an irritable live wire right now, and…if I’m completely honest, I’m probably just embarrassed to have anyone else see me this way.
From Literature
"I was so exhausted when I got home. I couldn't sleep. It was making me very irritable, because of the constant demands and never feeling like you're doing a good enough job."
From BBC
We are getting these dopamine hits and then our body tries to compensate for it and that puts us in a state where we are more irritable, more anxious, more depressed.
From Los Angeles Times
"She had a bloated abdomen, was irritable and unable to eat anything because the foetuses were squashing her stomach," Dr Anand said.
From BBC
Some people are more sensitive to caffeine than others and can feel nauseous, anxious and irritable, and get headaches even at lower doses.
From BBC
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.
