irritate
Americanverb (used with object)
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irritates,
present (3rd person singular)
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irritated,
past participle, past
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irritating
present participle
-
to excite to impatience or anger; annoy.
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Physiology, Biology. to excite (a living system) to some characteristic action or function.
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Pathology. to bring (a body part) to an abnormally excited or sensitive condition.
verb (used without object)
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irritates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
irritated,
past participle, past
-
irritating
present participle
verb
-
to annoy or anger (someone)
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(tr) biology to stimulate (an organism or part) to respond in a characteristic manner
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(tr) pathol to cause (a bodily organ or part) to become excessively stimulated, resulting in inflammation, tenderness, etc
Synonym Usage
Irritate, exasperate, provoke mean to annoy or stir to anger. To irritate is to excite to impatience or angry feeling, often of no great depth or duration: to irritate by refusing to explain an action. To exasperate is to irritate to a point where self-control is threatened or lost: to exasperate by continual delays and excuses. To provoke is to stir to a sudden, strong feeling of resentful anger as by unwarrantable acts or wanton annoyance: to tease and provoke an animal until it attacks.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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irritatesimple
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irritatessimple
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have irritatedperfect
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has irritatedperfect
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am irritatingprogressive
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are irritatingprogressive
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is irritatingprogressive
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have been irritatingperfect progressive
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has been irritatingperfect progressive
Past
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irritatedsimple
-
had irritatedperfect
-
was irritatingprogressive
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were irritatingprogressive
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had been irritatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of irritate
1525–35; < Latin irrītātus, past participle of irrītāre to arouse to anger, excite, aggravate, equivalent to irritā- v. stem + -tus past participle suffix
Explanation
To irritate is to cause an unsettling reaction, whether it's of the body or the nerves. You can irritate someone by talking too loudly on your cellphone in public. You can also irritate your skin, causing a rash or redness. To irritate is to disturb — either physically or psychologically. When you have an allergic reaction to something, you irritate or disturb the body. When you have an allergic reaction to your kid brother, he is probably irritating you with his annoying habits. And what is the result of something irritating? An irritation of course.
Vocabulary lists containing irritate
Because of Winn-Dixie
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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:
We had little in common except the sisterly urge to irritate each other and our daily detente to watch “Saved by the Bell” for an hour after school.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Breathing air with high levels of NO2 can irritate airways, cause coughing, wheezing or make it difficult to breathe and worsen diseases like asthma.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Short-term exposure can irritate the lungs and nasal passages, and cause nausea and dizziness, said Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, Orange County’s health officer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026
And yet, a balancing act lies ahead because Beijing also "does not want to irritate Trump", she adds.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026
Twice in a minute she’s managed to irritate me.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
But when it goes away, so do our nightly doses of Colbert’s affable clowning, the kind that irritates thin-skinned despots in a way other comics can’t quite match.
From Salon ● May 21, 2026
"It irritates the life out of me," she says.
From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2025
‘How do you come up with things to write about?” a young George Will once asked William F. Buckley Jr. That’s easy, said the National Review founder, “the world irritates me three times a week.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2025
Traditional oral iron supplements can help, but they often leave behind unabsorbed iron that irritates the digestive tract and triggers inflammation.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 20, 2025
Everything irritates me, and cheery people just make that worse.
From "The Running Dream" by Wendelin Van Draanen
His protagonist is a writer who’s trying to build a relationship with his grandchild, Ben, while navigating the half-suppressed scorn of his daughter-in-law and the irritated complacency of his son.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
"Inevitably a muscle or ligament gets stretched and a bit irritated," he says.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
Canada's regional leaders said previously that the United States was particularly irritated by one retaliatory measure: the removal of US alcohol and wine from liquor stores.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
Her in-laws had a different reaction: “We were showing them the house, and they got more irritated with every room — like, ‘You have books in here too?’
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
“All faces get irritated from time to time.”
From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper
“It was real skinny, real wiry, real kind of irritating actually; listening to it almost hurt your head,” Wagoner said in Stephen Miller’s “Smart Blonde: The Life of Dolly Parton.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
There is something uniquely irritating about being emotionally pursued by a corporation that has also failed to notice you moved away.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
They said the coverage of the Instagram re-post row had been "deeply irritating" but added that the review was not directly linked to that incident.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Letisha Lucas, a 33-year-old tourist from Canada -- which has its own wildfires happening -- said the smoke smell was immediately obvious on arrival in Madrid "and very irritating on the throat".
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
Even if I did lose, irritating Elliot to this degree would almost make it all worth it.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
